Simulation Improves Patient Flow And Productivity At A Dental Clinic

The health care industry in the United States, and in many other countries as well, is undergoing unremitting pressures to improve standards of patient care and service, reduce costs, and increase efficiency.These pressures stem from higher expectations by health-care consumers, increased demands stemming from changing demographics (particularly the "graying" of populations), and more rigorous auditing of expenditures by both private insurers and government.In response, health-care industry practitioners, managers, and administrators are increasingly availing themselves of the analytical techniques, including simulation, provided by the discipline of industrial engineering.In this paper, we document a simulation study undertaken to improve patient service at a dental clinic.The simulation analysis validated innovative ways to improve patient throughput and decrease patient waiting times with zero incremental cost.