Using Simulations to Reduce Waiting Time at The Outpatient Department of Laem Chabang Hospital

Abstract

This article has created a simulation model of the outpatient department at Laem Chabang Hospital in Chonburi Province in order to reduce waiting times for patients. The analysis using the model revealed that the bottleneck process in the department is the Clinic Rooms 1, 2, and 3, with average waiting times of 74.53±0.85 minutes, 75.77±0.83 minutes, and 75.79±1.15 minutes, respectively. Therefore, the article proposes 11 improvement scenarios, where Scenarios 1 to 4 involve individual improvements, and Scenarios 1 to 4 are combined to create Scenarios 5 to 11. The analysis results indicate that the recommended scenario is Scenario 11, which involves adding one doctor to the Clinic Rooms, adding one OP29 medication preparation staff, and adjusting the patient entry rate by allowing patients with yellow cards to enter until 12:00 PM and scheduling patients with blue cards from 1:00 PM onwards. By implementing these changes, it is possible to reduce the average waiting time for patients with blue cards from 127.24±1.00 minutes to 27.98±0.69 minutes, for patients with pink cards from 13.64±0.87 minutes to 13.61±0.82 minutes, for patients with white cards from 75.16±2.36 minutes to 70.95±1.87 minutes, and for patients with yellow cards from 163.48±1.54 minutes to 71.32±0.82 minutes.