Abstract
In this chapter, we first compare two methods of booking consultation appointments in a surgical service with several specialists, both in terms of the average clearance time for the appointment list, which is of interest to hospitals, and the weekly appointment rate, which is of interest to patients. We then expand the comparison by contrasting a third method to the original two methods. We used discrete-event simulation of patient flow described in detail in the previous chapter. In the simulation study, we apply a cluster randomized design, in which the unit of allocation was the hospital and the units of analysis were both the simulated hospital and the simulated patient. Our results suggest that clearance times were shorter in hospitals where patients waited for surgical consultations in a single queue and that within each week a larger proportion of patients were likely to have an appointment if they were in a single queue.
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Sobolev, B., Sanchez, V., Kuramoto, L. (2012). Booking Consultation Appointments. In: Health Care Evaluation Using Computer Simulation. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2233-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2233-4_14
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