Volume 6 - Volume 6
MODELING AND SIMULATION OF THE PATIENT FLOW IN AN OUTPATIENT CLINIC
Abstract
Healthcare services are in a critical situation in Brazil. In spite of the absence of financial resources, the problems faced today indicate that part of their origin is in the inefficiency and in the lack of competence from the people who manage the healthcare processes. Contributing in this direction, this study sought to analyze the patient flow in an outpatient clinic specialized in the treatment of allergies using the discrete event simulation as a support tool. To achieve this aim, it was needed to map the flow of service processes, to identify critical points based on the patient flow data and to propose improvements simulating the implementation. Clinic visits were conducted in order to understand the process dynamics and the patient flow and collect data related to the service times that would provide inputs to the simulation model. After simulating the current system using as parameters the patient average time in the system and the average time in operation, it has been proposed three scenarios for improving the customer waiting time. With simple changes in the process, it was possible to obtain in the simulated outcomes a reduction of about 60% in the length of stay of patients in the clinic. The results showed that the basic principles of process simplification are fully applicable in healthcare operations and allow envisioning a way to alleviate common problems in the sector.
Paper Details
PaperID: p 3079-3094
Author's Name: Cathaline Bonafini Sanches, Luciano Costa Santos and Mateus Marcelino da Silva
Volume: Volume 6
Issues: Volume 6
Keywords: Healthcare services, modeling and simulation, service processes.
Year: 2016
Month: April
Pages: 3079-3094