The Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory is a constituent laboratory of the Institute for Systems Research at the University of Maryland.
To react to an outbreak of a contagious disease, county health departments have to setup and operate mass dispensing and vaccination clinics. Carefully planning these clinics before an event occurs is a difficult and important job. Two key considerations are the capacity of each clinic (measure as the number of patients served per hour) and the time (in minutes) spent by patients in the clinic. This paper discusses a simulation study done to support this planning effort. Based on data from a time study of a vaccination clinic exercise, a simulation model was built and validated. This model was then used to evaluate alternatives to the clinic design and operation. The results show that staff assignments, arrival patterns, and batching significantly impact clinic capacity and the average time that patients spend in the clinic.
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Copyright Notice: This paper has been submitted to Health Care Management Science. Personal use of this material is permitted. Any other uses require permission of the copyright holder.
Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant EEC 02-43803. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
The authors appreciate the assistance of all who helped set up and perform the time study, including Jo Jo Chamandy, Judy Covich, Lori Beth Hook, Randle Bell, Ashley Collinson, Michelle Edwards, Quaila Denning, Darren Doye, Michael Engram, Daniel Fitzgerald, Gina Gouker, Nils Klinkenberg, Geoff Kung, Joanna Meador, Melaine Moeller, Hans Moore, and Noah Stevens.
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Last updated by Jeffrey W. Herrmann, March 15, 2005.
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