Analyzing the start-up effects of new patients on an ambulatory care program

Holmes County, Mississippi was the site of a pilot study to develop a community-based program to combat hypertension, the primary health problem in the rural black community. Using experience gained during the pilot program, a model was developed that computes, over a sequence of planning periods, the personnel utilization and the treatment status of the patients as functions of treatment protocols, allocations of procedures to personnel, and the additions of new patients. The model can be used to study the impact of new patients on any ambulatory care program or any health maintenance organization in which there is unusually high personnel resource utilization during a patients first visit.