Article ID: | iaor20106736 |
Volume: | 61 |
Issue: | 10 |
Start Page Number: | 1437 |
End Page Number: | 1445 |
Publication Date: | Oct 2010 |
Journal: | Journal of the Operational Research Society |
Authors: | Smits M |
Keywords: | system dynamics, mental health |
For most of its history, medical care has been a customized process. Because customized processes might not lead to optimal performance, health-care managers are considering business process redesign, implementation of standardized (brief) therapies, stepped care, and policy changes to solve supply chain management issues. We develop a system dynamics model to support the management of intake and treatment processes in mental health care. We first model the existing situation in the care unit (Base Scenario of customized care) and simulate the impact of policy changes (assigning scarce personnel resources to different care activities) and redesign of intake and treatment processes (implementing brief therapies and stepped care). We show that shifting personnel resources between intake and treatment activities does not substantially improve performance. We found better results of process redesign and stepped care (+42% client intake rate and +18% revenues per day).