This article review examines the application of computer simulation in healthcare operations, specifically analyzing patient wait times and operational efficiency. The study reveals significant discrepancies between scheduled and actual appointment durations, with technology solutions proving more effective than simply increasing staff. The analysis demonstrates how simulation modeling can identify operational bottlenecks and optimize healthcare delivery systems.
Article Title: An Introduction to Using Computer Simulation in Healthcare-Patient Wait Case Study
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The healthcare industry is currently undergoing unpreceded change and upheaval. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many of these changes related to healthcare infrastructure and innovations. These changes have been in response to weaknesses in how customers, clients, and communities are served by healthcare organizations. One such issue is that of patient wait times and operational efficiency within healthcare facilities. As indicated by the article, wait times in healthcare facilities have traditional been long given staffing and operational inefficiencies. According to the article, the authors used a variety of data collection methods to determine the time spent within each step of the healthcare transaction. These methods included using a stopwatch to manually collect data, using hand-held bar code readers to track the amount of time paperwork is processed, and using special-purpose data collection software. Here, the authors found significant deviations between wait times and scheduled appointment durations. For example, the authors found that a 30-minute scheduled exam duration had an actual exam duration of 28 minutes with a standard deviation of 13.5 minutes. Here, the large deviations between the scheduled exam time, and the actual exam time, can cause significant delays and backlogs. This ultimately delays time of service, the customer service experience, and the efficiency of the operation. This also has an indirect impact on society as citizens are being unproductive while they are waiting for service. This unproductive time can compound resulting in less goods and services being produced by society overall (Banks, 1984)
Interestingly, the intuitive solution by the casual reader of the article would be to hire more personnel to better services clients. By hiring more personnel, conventional wisdom would suggest that more clients can be properly serviced. In addition, with more personnel, wait times and other services will be significantly reduced as the ratio of healthcare professionals to available consumers is improved. However, as the article illustrates, additional personnel did not directly correlate to improve wait times and service. The article concluded that additional exam rooms and support staff only had a marginal benefit. The critical element according to the article was an increase in available sessions for high volume services and procedures. In addition the article recommended a much more comprehensive use of technology to mitigate many of the common processing bottlenecks that typically occur within the healthcare system (Pallin, 1992).
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