Reducing Waiting Times in Diabetes Care: A Value Stream Mapping and OPA-Fuzzy-TOPSIS Analysis

Healthcare systems are inherently complex, and service delivery requires patient customization. Chronic care requires patients to spend significant time in the clinic for proper care. Long waiting times in healthcare facilities contribute to patient dissatisfaction and poor adherence to medical regimes. This study presents a method for analyzing non-value-added activities in the service supply chain and offers a prescriptive framework to minimize them. The method used to analyze the current and future state is value stream mapping, while stakeholder analysis was performed to understand the power and interest of stakeholders. Finally, this study uses the ordinal priority approach (OPA) and Fuzzy-TOPSIS to prioritize the action points for achieving the future state in the case organization. To illustrate the approach suggested in this study, a case of a diabetes speciality clinic was used. This study’s findings suggest hiring paramedical staff and clubbing diabetes education in medical nutrition therapy can reduce waiting time without affecting quality. The study further suggested that using multimedia in diabetes education is an effective strategy for reducing waiting times. Thus, this study provides a descriptive and prescriptive approach for analysis and improving healthcare service delivery. The findings of this study are useful for healthcare administrators and health policymakers.