Logistics Performances Of Healthcare System Using Queue Analysis Focusing On Patient Flow The Case Of St. Pauls Hospital Ethiopia

This study was conducted to assess the performance of patient flow at the healthcare system in rnEthiopia by taking St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC), as a case study. As rnthere is a very high demand for health service that exceeds the available capacity, the public rnhealthcare centers are overwhelmed with the long queues or they are delivering the service with rnrelatively very low consultation time. In the existing conditions, patients go as early as they can to rnthe healthcare facilities, waiting in queue, even before the opening and had to wait long time for rnexamination, consultation and diagnosis. However, due to high number of patients at the outpatient rndepartments relative to the number of physicians, it results in an increased workload on the physicians rnand it shortens the patient consultation time, which has an impact on the patients’ health. The main rnobjective of this research was to study the logistic performances of the healthcare system using rnqueuing analysis. This research used three key performance indicators namely, patient queue length, rnpatient waiting time and consultation time length. The performance evaluation was conducted based rnon data from patients who visited 69 clinical, surgical and diagnosis departments at the outpatient rnclinics of the hospital. Queue analysis was performed to determine the operational characteristics rnusing a queue scenario with Poisson arrival, exponential service, infinite population, First Comes rnFirst Served (FCFS) discipline and multiple server arrangement. The study showed that the patients’ rnarrival rate highly exceeded the service rate, in each respective clinical department. The outpatient rnclinics at the SPHMMC achieved an average total waiting time of 92 minutes to get consultation and rnnearly 70% of the patients waited for more than 95 minutes. The consultation time was as low as 5.71 rnminute at the Medical clinic and 6.16 minute at the Ophthalmology clinic and around 60% of the rnpatients saw the doctor for a time less than 10 minutes. Therefore, this research recommends rnaddressing the gaps in human resources and logistical supplies, to implement and enforce a staggered rnpatient scheduling and appointment system and to have serious intervention and control on the dual rnpractice, to ensure a smooth clinic process and to reduce waiting times. This study was conducted to assess the performance of patient flow at the healthcare system in rnEthiopia by taking St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC), as a case study. As rnthere is a very high demand for health service that exceeds the available capacity, the public rnhealthcare centers are overwhelmed with the long queues or they are delivering the service with rnrelatively very low consultation time. In the existing conditions, patients go as early as they can to rnthe healthcare facilities, waiting in queue, even before the opening and had to wait long time for rnexamination, consultation and diagnosis. However, due to high number of patients at the outpatient rndepartments relative to the number of physicians, it results in an increased workload on the physicians rnand it shortens the patient consultation time, which has an impact on the patients’ health. The main rnobjective of this research was to study the logistic performances of the healthcare system using rnqueuing analysis. This research used three key performance indicators namely, patient queue length, rnpatient waiting time and consultation time length. The performance evaluation was conducted based rnon data from patients who visited 69 clinical, surgical and diagnosis departments at the outpatient rnclinics of the hospital. Queue analysis was performed to determine the operational characteristics rnusing a queue scenario with Poisson arrival, exponential service, infinite population, First Comes rnFirst Served (FCFS) discipline and multiple server arrangement. The study showed that the patients’ rnarrival rate highly exceeded the service rate, in each respective clinical department. The outpatient rnclinics at the SPHMMC achieved an average total waiting time of 92 minutes to get consultation and rnnearly 70% of the patients waited for more than 95 minutes. The consultation time was as low as 5.71 rnminute at the Medical clinic and 6.16 minute at the Ophthalmology clinic and around 60% of the rnpatients saw the doctor for a time less than 10 minutes. Therefore, this research recommends rnaddressing the gaps in human resources and logistical supplies, to implement and enforce a staggered rnpatient scheduling and appointment system and to have serious intervention and control on the dual rnpractice, to ensure a smooth clinic process and to reduce waiting times.

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