Reducing waiting times in the pre-anaesthetic clinic of VU University Medical Center

Like many hospitals in the Netherlands, VU University Medical Center organizes the pre-operative screening of patients at an outpatient clinic. Patients for elective surgeries from different specialty departments are redirected to the pre-operative department for the screening, which results in the fact that most of the patients are walk-in patients. Peak hours of walk-in patients during the day increases the waiting times of the patients and the workload of the staff, demanding a redesign of the pre-operative processes. With the use of research techniques, we analyse the pre-operative processes, leading to recommendations for the planning and control design of the processes.