Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Health Care Manag Sci. 2013 Dec;16(4):352-65. doi: 10.1007/s10729-013-9234-2. Epub 2013 Mar 24.
This study uses a simulation model as a tool for strategic capacity planning for an outpatient physical therapy clinic in Taipei, Taiwan. The clinic provides a wide range of physical treatments, with 6 full-time therapists in each session. We constructed a discrete-event simulation model to study the dynamics of patient mixes with realistic treatment plans, and to estimate the practical capacity of the physical therapy room. The changes in time-related and space-related performance measurements were used to evaluate the impact of various strategies on the capacity of the clinic. The simulation results confirmed that the clinic is extremely patient-oriented, with a bottleneck occurring at the traction units for Intermittent Pelvic Traction (IPT), with usage at 58.9 %. Sensitivity analysis showed that attending to more patients would significantly increase the number of patients staying for overtime sessions. We found that pooling the therapists produced beneficial results. The average waiting time per patient could be reduced by 45 % when we pooled 2 therapists. We found that treating up to 12 new patients per session had no significantly negative impact on returning patients. Moreover, we found that the average waiting time for new patients decreased if they were given priority over returning patients when called by the therapists.
本研究以模拟模型作为工具，对台湾台北的一家门诊物理治疗诊所进行战略容量规划。该诊所提供广泛的物理治疗服务，每次治疗有 6 名全职治疗师。我们构建了一个离散事件模拟模型，以研究具有实际治疗计划的患者组合动态，并估计物理治疗室的实际容量。时间相关和空间相关性能测量的变化用于评估各种策略对诊所容量的影响。模拟结果证实，该诊所非常以患者为中心，间歇性骨盆牵引（IPT）的牵引装置出现瓶颈，使用率为 58.9%。敏感性分析表明，治疗更多的患者会显著增加超时治疗的患者数量。我们发现，集中治疗师会产生有益的结果。当集中 2 名治疗师时，每位患者的平均等待时间可以减少 45%。我们发现，每次治疗增加 12 名新患者对回诊患者没有明显的负面影响。此外，我们发现，如果新患者在被治疗师呼叫时优先于回诊患者，他们的平均等待时间会减少。
