AN OPTIMIZATION OF OUTPATIENTS’ WAITING TIME AND HEALTH-RELATED RISKS

ONOJA, Anthony and CHIDINMA OGUNDARE, Oluwabunmi and EMMANUEL TEJUOSO, Funso (2022) AN OPTIMIZATION OF OUTPATIENTS’ WAITING TIME AND HEALTH-RELATED RISKS. Journal of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of UT, 7 (13-14). pp. 21-35. ISSN 2671-3039

Text JNSM 13-14 e formatuar-21-35.pdf Download (1MB)

Abstract

The study of optimal queuing systems in healthcare is crucial at such a time as this to help decongest the system, and minimize financial losses and health-related risks associated with long waiting queues. This study examined a queuing system at an outpatient hospital clinic post intending to minimize waiting time in association with financial cost and healthcare-related risks. We observed the queuing system using the sampling survey information of 200 outpatients that visited the clinic for 4 weeks. We used the initial queuing ground truth parameters as the baseline scenario and further simulated 4 other queuing scenarios using the TORA optimization software. We calculated the total expected cost associated with the server(s) (Doctors) and the patients while in the queuing system for each scenario. We further discretize their health-related complications and calculated the incidence rate of the patients while in the queuing system to evaluate their health-related risks. The findings of our study showed there is an association between patient waiting time, financial cost, and health-related risks. Also, the proposed queuing model showed that the system utilization, optimal expected total cost, health-related risks (risk of discomfort and illness/infections developed while in the queue), and waiting time are optimal at the hospital clinic with 5 servers (doctors). The major contribution of this study arose from the incorporation of financial costs and health-related risk variables into the proposed patient queuing model to minimize patient waiting time at the outpatient clinic.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Outpatient, Queuing system, Patient waiting time, Financial cost, Health-related risk
Subjects:	T Technology > T Technology (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Engineering, Science and Mathematics > School of Electronics and Computer Science
Depositing User:	Unnamed user with email zshi@unite.edu.mk
Date Deposited:	31 Oct 2022 09:57
Last Modified:	31 Oct 2022 09:57
URI:	http://eprints.unite.edu.mk/id/eprint/1053

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