New Brunswick, N.J.-based Rutgers Cancer Institute nearly doubled the number of infusion patients it treated per day after modeling patient flow patterns in an animated 3D clinic simulation, according to a study published May 26 in the Annals of Operations Research.
Researchers from the cancer institute and Rutgers Business School built a working computer simulation of the institute’s blood cancer clinic using on-site observations collected between June and August 2022 and appointment data from the EHR.
At the start of the project the clinic had about 50 infusion appointments per day — some lasting 6 to 8 hours — along with more than 200 shorter clinic visits per day, according to a June 23 news release from Rutgers.
After virtually testing changes to patient flow, the model identified two bottlenecks:
- Pre-infusion blood samples were processed at an off-site hospital laboratory. Blood test results were needed to begin infusion treatments and the 90-minute wait extended appointment times.
- All patients — regardless of appointment type — were placed in the same queue, meaning patients with shorter clinic visits could wait behind patients with longer infusion appointments.
After establishing an on-site laboratory and adjusting the schedule by appointment type, the clinic cut bloodwork turnaround times from about 90 minutes to less than 30 and increased the number of infusion patients treated each day from about 50 to 80.
Read the full study here.
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