Abstract
Coordinated multi-specialty care is gaining prominence mainly due to two factors: the increasing number patients with multiple chronic conditions, and the need for hospitals to simultaneously improve both improve patient care and operational efficiency. Healthcare operations management studies have shown that, post-implementation, coordinated multi-specialty care can result in improvements to patient outcomes, cost, resource allocation, and staff workload. However, no studies have characterized the demand for multi-specialty care. This research project focuses on estimating demand and benefits of multi-specialty appointments at a hospital outpatient clinics using historical patient appointment data. We identify combination of specialties that are better suited for multi-specialty care. Our analysis shows that there is opportunity to offer patients same-day consultation appointments in multiple specialties. It also shows that there is a significant population of patients for whom this arrangement would be possible, and that such a policy can also increase patient attendance, decrease appointment lead times, and increase patient satisfaction scores. The analysis presented in this work can provide useful guidelines for healthcare providers as they plan their coordinated care efforts.