Use of discrete event simulation to improve a mental health clinic

To improve clinic design, trial-and-error is commonly used to discover strategies that lead to improvement. Our goal was to predict the effects of various changes before undertaking them.

Systems engineers collaborated with staff at an integrated primary care-mental health care clinic to create a computer simulation that mirrored how the clinic currently operates. We then simulated hypothetical changes to the staffing to understand their effects on percentage of patients seen outside scheduled clinic hours and service completion time.

We found that, out of the change options being considered by the clinic, extending daily clinic hours by two and including an additional psychiatrist are likely to result in the greatest incremental decreases in patients seen outside clinic hours and in service time.

Simulation in partnership with engineers can be an attractive tool for improving mental health clinics, particularly when changes are costly and thus trial-and-error is not desirable.