RESOURCE ALLOCATION OF DENTAL SERVICES IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CORPORATION HEALTH CENTERS, QATAR

Abstract

The focus of this project work is driven by the goal of providing fair access to healthcare services. The access depends on the resources available, available slots for consultation and services, and the waiting time as they can impact the health condition of the patients. An analytical model is utilized in this project to design a resource allocation system for dental patients. The model is developed as a linear programming problem for maximizing the required number of dentists to be allocated at the health centers of the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) in Qatar. The data used in this paper are obtained from PHCC. The results of the analysis show that 12 PHCC health centers have more dentists than needed in their clinics where there is a necessity to reallocate them to other nine health centers where dentists are overburdened by the number of patients they have to treat every day. Hence, it is critical to have a proper resource allocation to enable the greatest possible service to be offered to the patients while also ensuring fairness among the dentists.