Simulation of a Queuing System to Increase the Service Efficiency of Outpatient Department: a Case Study of Mueangpan Hospital, Lampang Province

Abstract

This purpose of this research was to solve the problem of long waiting time in a queue for the outpatient department of Mueangpan Hospital, Lampang province. Daily queuing data from the hospital in the time period of 8.30 am. – 16.30 pm, Monday to Friday, were collected for 30 days from December 2018 – January 2019. There was a real waiting time problem: some patients waited for 2.09 hours to be examined. We created and ran a simulation model of their queuing system by using Arena software. After an analysis of the simulation results, we proposed the following approach to solve the problem: 1) adding one more service counter, i.e., one more working staff member, at the history review point, which should cost the hospital 600 Baht per day for the labor fee; 2) adding one more physician at the examination room which would cost 1,200 Baht for the daily physician fee. Another round of simulation showed that the proper approach to improving the system was scenario 2, adding one more physician at the examination room, working from 8.30 am. – 16.30 pm. By doing that, the average waiting time for the system was reduced from 125.68 minutes to 101.44 minutes or reduced by 19.28%. The average waiting time for patient interview and history taking was reduced from 29.47 minutes to 21.69 minutes or reduced by 26.39%, and the average waiting time at the examination room was reduced from 27.21 minutes to 21.69 minutes or reduced by 23.85%. This scenario would result in a daily total physician fee of 6,000 Baht per day for the hospital from the original 4,800 Baht per day.