Designing a podiatry service to meet the needs of the population: a service simulation.
A model of a podiatry service has been developed which takes into consideration the effect of changing access criteria, skill mix and staffing levels (among others) given fixed local staffing budgets and the foot-health characteristics of the local community. A spreadsheet-based deterministic model was chosen to allow maximum transparency of programming. This work models a podiatry service in England, but could be adapted for other settings and, with some modification, for other community-based services. This model enables individual services to see the effect on outcome parameters such as number of patients treated, number discharged and size of waiting lists of various service configurations, given their individual local data profile. The process of designing the model has also had spin-off benefits for the participants in making explicit many of the implicit rules used in managing their services.
Campbell
Jackie A
JA
School of Health, University of Northampton, Boughton Green Road, Northampton, Northamptonshire NN2 7AL, United Kingdom. jackie.campbell@northampton.ac.uk
D018672:Community Health Planning; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005534:Foot Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D018409:Foot Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011032:Podiatry / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012985:Software Design; D013222:State Medicine; D014600:Utilization Review; D014850:Waiting Lists