Summary: | Appointment scheduling involves picking a strategy for sequencing patient appointments such that the wait time per patient is minimized and the idle time and overtime for the doctor are minimized. The goal of this project is to increase the number of scans per day at the echocardiogram clinic in the Hospital for Sick Children. The objectives were realized by performing simulations of the workflow of the echo clinic using simulation software. The simulation model did not precisely reflect the echo clinic, and the disparity was attributed to limitations in the simulation model. Nevertheless, the user accepted the model and six different policy change scenarios were explored. All six scenarios yielded significant increases in average scans per day per sonographer. Scenario IV, which eliminated the use of sonographer schedules, was recommended to be implemented due to ease of implementation and lack of negative effect on patient wait time and sonographer overtime.
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