The Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory is a constituent laboratory of the Institute for Systems Research at the University of Maryland.
The objective of this research project is to create mathematical and simulation models of mass dispensing and vaccination clinics (also known as points of dispensing or PODs) and to develop decision support tools to help emergency preparedness planners plan clinics that have enough capacity to serve residents quickly while avoiding unnecessary congestion. A poor clinic design will have insufficient capacity and long lines of patients waiting for vaccinations. More patients require more space as they wait to receive treatment. If too many patients are in the clinic, they cause congestion, crowding, and confusion.
We have started a blog called Public Health Preparedness Modeling to share information about this project (and other public health preparedness modeling efforts). We hope also to get comments and feedback from the public health community. Please take a look and let us know what we can do to make it more valuable to you!
eMedCheck is an electronic medication screening form that can be run on a PDA. Using this software, POD staff record basic information about each family member. The software uses decision rules to determine which medication each person should receive. It also records the results for later analysis.
The Clinic Planning Model Generator software creates a Microsoft Excel workbook for POD planning. Public health planners in 25 states have used the software to evaluate and improve their POD plans. The software has the following features:
The CLINIC PLANNING MODEL GENERATOR Version 2.04 is available for download free of charge.
See our Frequently Asked Questions and our blog for more information about the software.
Note: it is essential to have both the Clinic Generator and Clinic Template files in the same folder on your computer when using the software.
Note: If running Microsoft Excel 2003, you may need to change the Macro Security level to Medium. On the Excel Tools menu, click Options. Click the Security tab. Under Security, click Macro Security. Click the Security Level tab, and then click on the button next to Medium. Then click OK.
Registration: Please send an email to jwh2@umd.edu to tell us that you have downloaded the software. We will update you when revisions are available. We will not send you junk email.
Download: You can use the following links to download the user's guide and the software:
You can also download a zip file that contains all of the above files.
Copyright notice: Copyright 2008 University of Maryland and Montgomery County APC. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer: Cooperative Agreement Number U50/CCU302718 from the CDC to NACCHO supported this publication. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the University of Maryland and the Advanced Practice Center for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response of Montgomery County, Maryland, and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC or NACCHO.
CLINIC SURGE PLANNING MODEL: 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.
To use, download the following files:
Beta release of Adaptable Clinic Planning Model: Now available is the beta release of the Adaptable Clinic Planning Model. This model provides the same functionality as the Clinic Planning Model Generator but in a different user interface. To use it, one simply opens the file and starts modifying the model. The model, along with documentation and a sample, is available in the following zip file: ACPM.zip Please try it and provide feedback to us at jwh2@umd.edu.
You can also access the following files directly:
The CLINIC PLANNING MODEL GENERATOR Version 1.25 is still available for download as a zip file.
Drive-through Flu Clinic Example: The following complete model is an example of a clinic planning model. It was created for planning a drive-through flu clinic.
We are constructing a list of computer models that have been developed for public health preparedness activities and are available on-line for use by public health professionals. This list will provide links to web sites for accessing the models. We would like to make this list as comprehensive as possible. To do so, we invite you to nominate models that you have used (or considered) and that you believe other local public health agencies would find useful. To do so, contact Jeffrey W. Herrmann at jwh2@umd.edu.
About the project
About the queueing network approximations
Copyright Notice: The papers listed are copyrighted. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint or republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the copyright holder.
The following are some of the articles that have appeared discussing this research.
Principal Investigator
The following students have contributed to the success of this project:
Last updated by Jeffrey W. Herrmann, May 2, 2008.
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