Performance improvement in cardiology department of a hospital by simulation

Abstract

The healthcare industry plays a vital role in the life of humankind and in the economic development of a country. Healthcare services have to be provided to mankind as and when required, without time delay and compromise on quality. This research focuses on reduction of waiting time of patients as it is considered as one of the important parameters that governs the service quality and is considered to improve patient satisfaction. This was studied by performing a case study in cardiology outpatient department of a private hospital in South India. Cardiology was chosen as it is one of the most critical areas which demands immediate attention. The study follows a discrete event simulation approach for analysing the trajectory of patients in the cardiology department, determining various performance parameters, suggesting changes in the existing system and developing alternate models to compare the results with those of the existing model. Reducing waiting time permits physicians to address more number of patients in a given period which are evident from the results obtained from the developed models. Simulation results revealed that the four alternate systems proposed were effective than the existing system.