A simulation based analysis on reducing patient waiting time for consultation in an outpatient eye clinic

This paper presents a preliminary analysis to reduce patient waiting time for consultation in an outpatient eye clinic, using a data driven discrete event simulation model. This study is of interest and importance for a better understanding of the causes of patient long waiting in an actual clinic in an effort to reduce the patient waiting time for consultation. Several proposed strategies, such as pool scheduling of patients, uniform patient arrivals and improved process flow, have been studied. It is found that patients' irregular arrival pattern during a day is one of the main causes of the long waiting time. Analysis and recommendations for reducing patient waiting time at the eye clinic are provided in this paper. Simulation model of an eye clinic located in Singapore is used as the base case and the effects are quantified against the base model.