Hospital Patient Flow Analysis using Queuing Theory

This assignment delves into the application of queuing theory within a healthcare setting, specifically focusing on patient flow analysis in a hospital environment. The project begins by outlining the key parameters considered, such as patient arrival rates, service rates, and the capacity of the waiting room. The assignment then explores the impact of these parameters on patient waiting times and overall hospital efficiency. A scenario is presented where the initial analysis suggests adequate service levels, however, a change in circumstances, such as the closure of a nearby hospital and an increase in the patient arrival rate, necessitates a reevaluation of the staffing levels to accommodate the increased demand and minimize patient wait times. The assignment highlights the importance of adjusting resources, such as increasing the number of physicians, to maintain an acceptable level of service and improve the patient experience. The references provided support the concepts of queuing theory and its applications in managing healthcare operations.

QUEUING THEORY 1
QUEUING THEORY
University Affiliation
Student’s Name
Date

QUEUING THEORY 2
Introduction
Outpatient services are essential in the health care professional hence a need to be keen
on them. In the health professional emphasizes are put on the medical practitioners time which
is more important than time of the patients. Different systems have been called into place to
make sure that the doctor is not idle and the patients waiting time is minimal In this work, we
will explore this in one of the inner city hospitals.
Parameters
To come up with the decision on the need to have more physicians on this hospital
various parameters were examined. They include the patient flow per hour, the service rate as
well as the number of people giving out the service per hour. (Armony, 2015)
The parameter such as the waiting room was considered to know whether the remaining
patient would fit into it. Others such as the number of patients per hour and the people who
offered the services were also essential parameters to know (Green, 2006). They would depict
the waiting time for the patient as well as the efficiency of the services. Another parameter such
as inadequate servers was also considered that attributed me to add more servers to cut on the
number of waiting patients (Denton, 2013).
Application
In my first decision, I came to my conclusion that the service was okay since 20 patients
arrived per hour and every hour about ten were catered for. More over the waiting room would
accommodate about 13 patients. However, I reconsidered my decision since a nearby small
hospital was closing down and the number of patients per hour would decrease (Afrane, 2014).

QUEUING THEORY 3
In the second scenario, there is a need to increase the medical staff since according to the
current situation the service rate is 10 patients per hour. The arrival rate has increased which are
65 patients per hour. As such, the patient will face many delays if the physician is not increased.
Increment of the physicians will also lead to reduced waiting time for the patients. (Yom-Tov,
2014)
References
Afrane, S., & Appah, A. (2014). Queuing theory and the management of Waiting-time in
Hospitals: The case of Anglo Gold Ashanti Hospital in Ghana. International Journal of
Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4(2), 34.
Armony, M., Israelit, S., Mandelbaum, A., Marmor, Y. N., Tseytlin, Y., & Yom-Tov, G. B.
(2015). On patient flow in hospitals: A data-based queueing-science perspective. Stochastic
Systems, 5(1), 146-194.
Denton, B. T. (2013). Handbook of healthcare operations management. New York: Springer.
Green, L. (2006). Queueing analysis in healthcare. Patient flow: reducing delay in healthcare
delivery, 281-307.
Yom-Tov, G. B., & Mandelbaum, A. (2014). Erlang-R: A time-varying queue with reentrant
customers, in support of healthcare staffing. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management,
16(2), 283-299.