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Capacity of Clinical Pathways—A Strategic Multi-level Evaluation Tool

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Abstract

In this paper we strategically evaluate the efficiency of clinical pathways and their complex interdependencies with respect to joint resource usage and patient throughput. We propose a discrete-event simulation approach that allows for the simultaneous evaluation of multiple clinical pathways and the inherent uncertainty (resource, duration and arrival) that accompanies medical processes. Both the consultation suite and the surgery suite may be modeled and examined in detail by means of sensitivity or scenario analyses. Since each medical facility can somehow be represented as a combination of clinical pathways, i.e. they are conceptually similar, the simulation model is generic in nature. Next to the formulation of the model, we illustrate its applicability by means of a case study that was conducted in a Belgian hospital.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Walter Sermeus of the Center for Health Services and Nursing Research of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven for introducing the concept of clinical pathways to our research group. We are grateful to Dr. Karl Brabants and Wim Van de Waeter of the Middelheim hospital in Antwerp, both for contributing their clinical experience when the model was built and for providing the data for the case study. We appreciate the contribution of Lode Van Damme to the revision and the testing of the simulation model. We acknowledge the support given to this project by the Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO-Vlaanderen) as Aspirant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Decision Sciences and Information Management, Research Center for Operations Management, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Naamsestraat 69, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Brecht Cardoen & Erik Demeulemeester

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  1. Brecht Cardoen
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  2. Erik Demeulemeester
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Correspondence to Brecht Cardoen.

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Cardoen, B., Demeulemeester, E. Capacity of Clinical Pathways—A Strategic Multi-level Evaluation Tool. J Med Syst 32, 443–452 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-008-9150-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-008-9150-z

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