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This paper discusses a generalized model of an outpatient clinic which duplicates many real-life complexities, e.g. different facilities, the patient routes through the clinic, number of observers in each facility, etc. The validation tests proved that the output generates distributions which are not statistically different from the observed distributions for The Pennsylvania State Outpatient Clinic. The model is relatively fast and efficient, and one typical day can be simulated in less than one second of the computer processing time on IBM System 370/168. With slight modifications, it is capable of being transferred to many different types of health care delivery systems, e.g. hospitals, health maintenance organizations and to prehospital emergency care systems.The paper describes some basic measures of effectiveness for outpatient clinics, and using these measures evaluates various operating procedures and policies.
Stafford et al. (Mon,) studied this question.