IDENTIFYING AND ADDRESSING IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN PRIMARY CARE CLINICS

Author

Mozhdeh Sadighi

Graduation Semester and Year

2020

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial Engineering

Department

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering

First Advisor

Paul Componation

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The main aim of this dissertation is to study how unrecognized opportunities for improving efficiency of in-person patient visits in a primary care clinic can be identified and addressed. To fulfill this goal, the research is divided into three distinct but related sections. Section one, with the most holistic view, uses a combination of scientific and rigorous methods along two research paths and, as a result, explores two opportunities for improvement in the clinic. These opportunities are high patient waiting time and unbalanced workload. Sections two and three each focus on underlying conditions driving one of these two opportunities. These underlying conditions hereafter referred to as “potential key drivers”. Section two pursues the goal of improving patient scheduling as a potential key driver to reduce patient waiting time. In order to achieve this purpose, it suggests a method to accurately estimate actual patient visit time. Section three focuses on improving the primary care providers’ assignment model as a potential key driver to balance the workload. To meet this goal, it proposes a two-step methodology to balance clinic workload by optimizing the current assignment model. Results from these three sections can be used by the clinic management team to enhance the decision-making process for any future change pertinent to patient scheduling and primary care provider assignments.

Keywords

Mixed methods, Patient visit, Patient flow, Patient scheduling, Visit time, Waiting time, Unbalanced workload, Multilevel modeling, Resource allocation, Optimization

Disciplines

Engineering | Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

Recommended Citation

Sadighi, Mozhdeh, "IDENTIFYING AND ADDRESSING IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN PRIMARY CARE CLINICS" (2020). Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations. 155.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/industrialmanusys_dissertations/155