Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35505594›Full record

ArticleInquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financing

Evaluating Different Strategies on the Blood Collection Counter Settings to Improve Patient Waiting Time in Outpatient Units.

Chih-Hao Chen, Yao-Te Tsai, Chun-An Chou, Shao-Jen Weng, Wen-Chin Lee, Li-Wei Hsiao, Natan Derek, Chang-Pu Ko

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financing. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Chih-Hao ChenDepartment of Industrial Engineering and Enterprise Information, 34890Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Yao-Te TsaiDepartment of International Business, 34902Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Chun-An ChouDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 1848Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
Shao-Jen WengDepartment of Industrial Engineering and Enterprise Information, 34890Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.ORCID 0000-0003-2230-6775
Wen-Chin LeeDivision of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, 92748Chang Bing Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
Li-Wei HsiaoDivision of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, 92748Chang Bing Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
Natan DerekDepartment of Industrial Engineering and Enterprise Information, 34890Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Chang-Pu KoDepartment of Industrial Engineering and Systems Management, 34902Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Long patient waiting time is one of the major problems in the healthcare system and it would decrease patient satisfaction. Previous studies usually investigated how to improve the treatment flow in order to reduce patient waiting time or length of stay. The studies on blood collection counters have received less attention. Therefore, the objective of this study is to reduce the patient waiting time at outpatient clinics for metabolism and nephrology outpatients. A discrete-event simulation is used to analyze the four different strategies for blood collection counter resource allocation. Through analyzing four different strategic settings, the experimental results revealed that the maximum number of patients waiting before the outpatient clinics was reduced from 41 to 33 (20%); the maximum patient waiti-ng time at the outpatient clinics was decreased from 201.6 minutes to 83 minutes (59%). In this study, we found that adjusting the settings of blood collection counters would be beneficial. Assigning one exclusive blood collection counter from 8 to 10 am is the most suitable option with the least impact on the operational process for hospital staff. The results provide managerial insight regarding the cost-effective strategy selection for the hospital operational strategy.

Indexed as

OutpatientsWaiting ListsAmbulatory Care FacilitiesComputer SimulationHumansTime Factorsoutpatient clinicspatient flowsprocess improvementsimulationwaiting time

Identifiers

PMID35505594
PMCPMC9073117

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.