Impact points in patient flows through a radiology department provided through simulation

  • Authors:
  • Keith A. Klafehn

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Management, College of Business Administration, The University of Akron, Akron, OH

  • Venue:
  • WSC '87 Proceedings of the 19th conference on Winter simulation
  • Year:
  • 1987

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Abstract

Concern existed for the flow of the daily non-admission patients through the radiology department of a large midwestern acute care hospital. Their stay from time of entry to time of departure was deemed to be longer than was desirable. The flow of non-admission patients was complicated by the fact that the radiology department also provided services to all the in-house patients on a daily basis. A simulation model was built to trace the flow of patients through the system, to observe where waiting lines existed, and to determine the length of time individuals spent waiting for the scarce resources. Several different scenarios, represented by the number of available radiologists, were tried in an attempt to reduce the length of stay a non-admission patient remained in the hospital. The simulated runs indicated that the addition of one more radiologist to the existing five provided a reduction in the length of stay of non-admission patients.