Abstract
ABSTRACT Background: The service bottlenecks arising from the ill-managed patient flow and poor scheduling processes result in excessively long waiting time for patients. Purpose: To analyze the patient flow system and optimize the scheduling of patients in the radiology department of a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Method: This cross-sectional study was carried out in the radiology department of a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. It involved real-time observation of work process on 768 adult ambulant patients. The waiting time, arrival pattern, and service time for each patient were noted. The analytical software, MATLAB, was used for data analysis and system modeling. Results: Patient arrival time pattern was highly stochastic with a mean arrival rate of 7 ± 5.4 patients/h noted for one day. The peak arrival hour was 7.00–10.00 h with an arrival rate of 12 patients/h and average service time of 15 min was obtained. The overall mean waiting time in the system was calculated to be 116 min. The waiting time varied significantly with the arrival rate (at P < 0.05). Conclusion: Service bottlenecks in the Radiology departments can be addressed through good patient flow management that can be achieved by adopting an optimal scheduling system.
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