A methodology for determining the optimal design of a free standing abortion clinic.

A free-standing clinic is an outpatient abortion facility, apart from a hospital, privately owned, operated for profit, and its surgical services are limited to abortions. Using the queueing theory, a methodology is developed to determine the optimal design of such a clinic in order to maximize its profits. The methodology for determining the design involved the following components: 1) formulating a description of the free-standing clinic, 2) developing the clinic's objective function, 3) formulating the stopping rule, and 4) determining the clinic configuration with maximum profitability. The 3 main limitations to the methodology are the size of the n-space which it can easily handle, the complexity of the system under study, and the absence of social welfare variables in the objective function. However, it can be seen that by optimally designing a clinic through use of the methodology, abortion clinic management can indirectly improve conditions which affect the mental and physical health of the patients. An example of a clinic which was actually designed employing the methodology is presented.