A user-friendly excel simulation for scheduling in primary care practices

The purpose of this study is to provide a user-friendly Excel simulation tool for primary care practices to manage appointment schedules which accommodate multiple patient types and stochastic service times for the nurse and provider steps in patient flow. The key features of the Excel tool are: a color-coded schedule of each provider; a Gantt chart as a visual aid for schedulers; dynamic tests of different patient mix, sequence and start time combinations; and performance measures that include average and key percentiles of wait time, idle time and session completion time. The Excel tool can be easily modified by practices to incorporate their own data and needs. In our case study, we quantify the impact of flexible nurses and/or providers to satisfy patient demands for multiple providers.