An Analysis of Queuing System with Simulation Model at a Drug Dispensing: A Case Study of Chok Chai Hospital

Abstract

This research analysis alternatives based on the results of simulation technique to provide for servicing patients with the aim of reducing the waiting time of patients and their relatives. This research selected processes at a drug dispensing section for studying, since it receives the high number of patients, so the waiting time is longer than the standard time set by the hospital. Hence, there is the need of looking for alternatives to increase service efficiency. From researching processes at the drug dispensing section, there are four main steps: 1) medicine label printing, 2) arrangement, 3) verification and 4) dispensing. The research then developed service alternatives with the condition of no hiring additional employees but instead allocating current employees wisely. Alternative development came from brainstorming and analyzing staffs at the drug dispensing section, and our group of researchers came up with three alternatives as follows: 1) adding one more pharmacist for arrangement during 10.30 -14.30, 2) adding one more pharmacist for verification during 10.30 -14.30, and 3) adding one more pharmacist for dispensing during 10.30 -14.30. The results of simulating those three alternatives shows that the second alternative, which is adding one more pharmacist for medicine verification during 10.30-14.30, provided the optimum: average time of queuing system is equal to 557.13 seconds, which decreases from the current step by 14.68%, and average time of queuing is equal to 463.97 seconds, which decreases from the current step by 25.93%. In addition, the second alternative supports up to 398 patients, which increases from the current step by 4.74%. Therefore, it can be concluded that simulation can be used to develop alternatives suitable for real situations under the given employee condition of the case study.