Resource planning principles for the radiotherapy process using simulations applied to a longer vacation period use case

Abstract

Purpose: Radiotherapy (RT) resources need to be used wisely to balance workload and patient throughput. There are no known strategies on how to plan resource use around longer vacation periods to avoid patient waiting times. We created a simulation model over the RT workflow to evaluate different scenarios for this purpose.

Materials and methods: The simulation model mimics a large modern RT department in Sweden. It was based on real data on patient referral patterns and resource use extracted from clinical systems (3666 treatment courses). Workshops with managers and staff were held to investigate nine different scenarios for the summer vacation period including one scenario to validate the model. Different capacity reductions, vacation period lengths and timing of the vacation periods between the preparatory part of the RT workflow and the treatment part were evaluated.

Results: For an eight-week period, resource utilization was predicted to be high both before and after the vacation period regardless of timing. However, more patients would be waiting with completed preparations with simultaneous vacation periods than when the preparatory part started one-two weeks prior to the treatment part. With shorter vacation periods, treatment would require overtime during the vacation period with higher levels of patients waiting compared to an eight-week scenario.

Conclusions: Our proposed strategy aided managers to identify a preferred scenario for the summer vacation period with the preparatory part starting one-two weeks prior to the treatment part for an eight-week vacation period. This can help other RT departments to plan for similar situations.

Keywords: Radiotherapy; Resource planning; Simulation; Vacation.

Fig. 1

Capacities and simulation results for radiotherapy preparation and treatment steps during an eight-week summer vacation period. Simultaneous capacity reduction of both parts with 30% (a) and with 50% and 30% capacity reductions for preparation and treatment, respectively (b). Capacity reduction of 30% for both parts with the preparation vacation period starting four (c), two (d), one (e) week prior the treatment vacation period.

Fig. 2

Capacities and simulation results for radiotherapy preparation and treatment steps during a six-week or four-week summer vacation period. For a six-week long vacation period with a simultaneous capacity reduction of both parts with 50% (a) and still with 50% reduction but with the preparatory vacation period moved one week prior to the treatment part vacation period (b). For a four-week long vacation period with 70% capacity reduction for both parts with the preparatory vacation period moved one (c) and four (d) week prior to the treatment part vacation period.