Reduce Patient Treatment wait time in a Proton Beam Facility – A Gatekeeper Approach
- 13 July 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Journal of Medical Systems
- Vol. 45 (8), 1-9
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-021-01756-1
Abstract
Patient wait time can negatively impact treatment quality in a proton therapy center, where multiple treatment rooms share one proton beam. Wait time increases patient discomfort that can lead to patient motion, dissatisfaction, and longer treatment delay. This study was to develop a patient call-back model that reduced patient wait while efficiently utilizing the proton beam. A “Gatekeeper” logic allowing therapists to adjust the time of a patient’s call-back to the treatment room was developed. It uses a two-pronged approach to minimize overlap of long treatment and the possibility of excessive wait in the queue to receive the proton beam. The goal was to reduce the maximum wait time to less than eight minutes per field for a four-room facility. The effectiveness of this logic was evaluated through simulation, and five scenarios were compared. Four scenarios implementing various levels of gatekeeper logic were compared with the original scenario without the logic. The best performing model provided a reduction of the maximum field wait by 26% and met the predefined goal. Adjusting call-back extended the treatment day length by an average of 6 min and a maximum of 12 min in total. The use of this gatekeeper logic significantly reduces patient field wait with minimal impact on treatment day length for a four-room proton facility. A sample interface that adopts this logic for therapists to make informed decision on patient call-back time is demonstrated.Keywords
This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit:
- Evaluating the Impact of Patient No-Shows on Service QualityRisk Management and Healthcare Policy, 2020
- Improving accessibility for outpatients in specialist clinics: reducing long waiting times and waiting lists with a simple analytic approachBMC Health Services Research, 2018
- Patient scheduling based on a service-time prediction model: a data-driven study for a radiotherapy centerHealth Care Management Science, 2018
- Outpatient scheduling with unpunctual patients and no-showsEuropean Journal of Operational Research, 2018
- An optimization model for scheduling patients in destination medical centersOperations Research for Health Care, 2017
- Reducing waiting time and raising outpatient satisfaction in a Chinese public tertiary general hospital-an interrupted time series studyBMC Public Health, 2017
- Toward Implementing Patient Flow in a Cancer Treatment Center to Reduce Patient Waiting Time and Improve EfficiencyJournal of Oncology Practice, 2017
- Semi-online patient scheduling in pathology laboratoriesArtificial Intelligence in Medicine, 2015
- Ancillary service impact on outpatient schedulingInternational Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 2013
- OUTPATIENT SCHEDULING IN HEALTH CARE: A REVIEW OF LITERATUREProduction and Operations Management, 2003