Background

Multiple sclerosis patients are treated with intravenous (IV) disease modifying treatments (DMTs). Infusion suite resources are thus vital components of MS patient care. Infusion suites may be dedicated to MS patients, or shared with patients with other neurological conditions, or other patients requiring infusion. Here, we describe a resource utilization model for the infusion suites of Charing Cross (UK), which serves patients with different neurological conditions.

Objectives

To maximize the clinical efficiency of the infusion suite based on three resource constraints: percentage of patients IV MS DMTs, number of infusion chairs, and number of nurses. Efficiency gains in the infusion suite may benefit both patients and the healthcare system.

Methods

ENTIMOS, a discrete event simulation (DES) model, was created using SIMUL8 based on qualitative information from infusion centers and populated with data specific to the Charing Cross hospital neurology infusion suite. Posology, administration information, and rates of immune related-reactions (IRRs) were applied from published data sources from both MS and non-MS DMTs of interest.

The infusion suite model assumes 75 MS and 21 non-MS patients weekly, including up to seven MS patients initiating IV treatment; is equipped with 12 infusion chairs and six beds; and is staffed with a total of six nurses. We simulated the effects of changing the three resource constraints described on the number of patients waiting for an appointment (queue size), the time for patients to get an appointment for their first or subsequent IV treatments (waiting times), and general resource utilization.

Results

Changing the number of chairs, moving a subset of patients from IV to any non-IV alternative treatments, moving patients between MS IV treatments, or changing the allocation of nurse resources may all have an impact on the queue size and waiting times. Once the changes are implemented in the model, existing resources optimised and the queue size reduced, the effective centre throughput can be increased.

Conclusions

ENTIMOS allows users to optimize their use of constrained resources in an infusion suite to improve patient experience and infusion suite efficiency.