Improvement of chemotherapy patient flow and scheduling in an outpatient oncology clinic

Abstract

Due to increasing demand, the oncology clinics have been experiencing higher workloads and increasing delays in laboratory, pharmacy and chemotherapy administration areas. In this study, we worked with an oncology clinic where patients receive chemotherapy treatment. A discrete event simulation model is developed to evaluate the operational performance in the clinic and to identify initiatives for improvement in process flow, scheduling and staffing. A mathematical programming model is developed to generate balanced appointment schedules for oncologist visit and chemotherapy treatment. Our results show that patient waiting times and clinic total working times can be reduced, and a more balanced resource utilisation can be achieved using better scheduling methods.

Keywords:

• discrete event simulation
• appointment scheduling
• patient flow
• oncology
• chemotherapy

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the managers, providers, and staff of The Hematology and Oncology Clinic of Lahey Hospital and Medical Center for their time and feedback during the project.