Understanding the impact of variation in the delivery of healthcare services / Practitioner application

In the past several years, working with decreasing margins of return has become routine for many healthcare providers. Beyond straightforward cost cutting, providers must also consider a variety of other operational factors to achieve success. To this end, higher patient satisfaction and improved utilization and efficiency of resources are natural objectives. Ironically, fundamental to the pursuit of better operations management is the fact that the delivery of healthcare services can vary between and among patients, providers, and organizations for many reasons. By understanding the role that variability plays in the delivery of healthcare services, providers can more accurately model and address opportunities for improvement. Analytic and simulated queuing models are valuable tools in assisting healthcare managers in stimulating improvement at multiple levels of their organization. By focusing these efforts on areas where impact on waits can be maximized and the utilization of the delivery system can be enhanced, simultaneous improvements can be achieved.