Tactical allocation of resources in an outpatient clinic to treat patients close to home and improve room planning

Delivering care as close to patients’ homes as possible is pivotal in improving accessibility of care, which is a national priority for the Netherlands. This accessibility can be facilitated through effective employee capacity allocation policies, which subsequently requires an effective capacity planning methodology to ensure feasibility. With our research we show how hospital appointment data can be used to inform decision-making on employee allocation, considering patient proximity specifically. We also demonstrate how mathematical optimization through Simulated Annealing (SA) can be used to ensure hospital planning goals.