Simulating staffing needs for consultation in hospital clinics

As healthcare costs increase, there is a need for hospitals to look for ways to contain costs and to achieve a higher efficiency in their clinics without sacrificing quality. Just as many businesses have successfully reduced costs and gained competitive advantage by reengineering business processes, hospitals are now beginning to adopt a process-oriented approach and redesign the way certain processes are carried out to achieve cost containment and efficiency. Using computer simulation, this study assessed the efficiency of the consultation process in hospital clinics and recommended the optimal number of doctors, at which doctors as well as consultation rooms could be most efficiently utilized and patient wait times could be reduced. The results show that computer simulation is an effective tool supporting decisions on needs for doctors in the consultation process in hospital clinics.