Montgomery County’s Public Health Service Uses Operations Research to Plan Emergency Mass Dispensing and Vaccination Clinics

Kay Aaby (), Jeffrey W. Herrmann (), Carol S. Jordan (), Mark Treadwell () and Kathy Wood ()
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Kay Aaby: Montgomery County Advanced Practice Center, Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Program, Department of Health and Human Services, 2000 Dennis Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20902
Jeffrey W. Herrmann: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
Carol S. Jordan: Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, Dennis Avenue Health Center, 2000 Dennis Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20902
Mark Treadwell: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
Kathy Wood: Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Program, Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, 2000 Dennis Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20902

Interfaces, 2006, vol. 36, issue 6, 569-579

Abstract: To curb outbreaks of contagious diseases, county health departments must set up and operate clinics to dispense medications and vaccines. Carefully planning these clinics in advance of such an event is difficult and important. We developed and implemented operations research models to improve clinic planning for the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Health Services. They include discrete-event simulation models and capacity-planning and queueing-system models. We validated these models using data that we collected during full-scale simulations of disease outbreaks. We also developed guidelines for the physical design of clinics based on general queueing principles and our own experiences.

Keywords: health care: treatment; simulation: applications (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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