Long-range prediction of examining room requirements.

A quantitative methodology for predicting long-range examining room requirements of an orthopedic outpatient clinic is described. A simulation model of the clinic is used in an analysis of the sensitivity of four performance measures to changes in the clinic components, providing upper and lower boundaries for the component values and ranking the components by their importance. Regression equations relate the number of examining rooms to the performance measures, and an overall equation is constructed to predict examining room requirements as a function of weights assigned to the four measures.