Analysis of Waiting Lines in Out-Patient Department in Government Hospitals, A Case Study of Baptist Medical Centre, Nalerigu

Abstract

Queuing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines. The theory calculates the average time a customer spends in a system, the average time a customer spends in a line, and the average time a customer spends in service. The Out-Patient (OPD) department in any hospital is considered to be the shop window of the hospital and it is the most important service provided by all hospitals as it is the point of contact between a hospital and the community. The objective of the study was to find out the average number of arrivals entering the medical records and the outpatient pharmacy of the Out-Patient Department (OPD) of the Baptist Medical Centre, Nalerigu, the average service time of patients and the probability that a patient has to wait to receive a service.

It was found out that on average two patients arrive per hour at both the medical records and pharmacy. A stopwatch was used to calculate the number of minutes spent by each patient at the medical records and the outpatient pharmacy. Data were collected on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from the hours of 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. The queuing model was used to analyze the data gathered on patients" arrival and service times. It was realized that the medical records are over-utilized and hence need more servers to reduce waiting time and service time. The results thus show that patients queued for long in the entire system before receiving treatment, which made them uncomfortable.