Improving the efficiency of physical examination services
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Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Observational Study Protocol for Repeated Clinical Examination and Critical Care Ultrasonography Within the Simple Intensive Care Studies
Published on: January 16, 2019
Wheyming Tina Song1, Mingchang Chih, Aaron E Bair
1Department of Industrial Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China. wheyming@ie.nthu.edu.tw
Abstract:
The objective of our project was to improve the efficiency of the physical examination screening service of a large hospital system. We began with a detailed simulation model to explore the relationships between four performance measures and three decision factors. We then attempted to identify the optimal physician inquiry starting time by solving a goal-programming problem, where the objective function includes multiple goals. One of our simulation results shows that the proposed optimal physician inquiry starting time decreased patient wait times by 50% without increasing overall physician utilization.
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