Public Health Preparedness Modeling

The Clinic Surge Planning Model is specifically designed for short-duration, high-volume clinics that have a surge of patients when the clinic opens. This model helps planners predict how long the clinic will need to be open to handle the initial surge and the patients who arrive after that. The model is an Excel workbook that the user can download and begin using.  It was developed by Adam Montjoy, a student at Clemson University, during his participation in an undergraduate research program run by the Institute for Systems Research.  You can find the model on our project web site.

Version 2.04 of the Clinic Planning Model Generator is currently undergoing some beta testing.  It fixes some minor errors in the queueing calculations for self-service stations and improves the user interface.  If you’re interested in helping us test it, please contact me at jwh2@umd.edu.

We are also working on a Web-based version of the software that doesn’t use Microsoft Excel.  Please stay tuned for more information about that in the weeks ahead.

The POD Game is another interesting tool created by the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health Center for the Advancement of Distance Education (CADE). Even more so than their public health preparedness island in Second Life, the POD Game is oriented to training staff on how to direct people in a mass dispensing POD.

The game is played using a Web browser.  The user plays the role of a triage person who must interact with a set of simulated people by choosing questions to ask, answers to give to their questions, and different actions so that each person is sent to the right place. A player is graded on the number of right answers and on how many people are seen in a given time.

Last week I talked to some folks in California who are using the Clinic Planning Model Generator. They pointed out that, in the user’s guide, the description of clinic capacity is not correct.

So, until we get the new version out, here is a better description: “Clinic capacity: the maximum number of patients per hour that the clinic can serve. This is based on the capacity of the stations and the routing of patients through the clinic. The clinic capacity should be larger than the required throughput in the input demands section.”