Emergency Room

The medical director of a large emergency clinic faces a problem of providing treatment for patients who arrive at different rates during the day. There are several doctors available to treat patients when needed. If not needed, they can be assigned to other responsibilities (for example, lab tests, reports, x-ray diagnoses) or else rescheduled to work at other hours.

It is important to provide quick and responsive treatment, and the medical director feels that, on the average, patients should not have to sit in the waiting area for more that 5 minutes before being seen by a doctor. Patients are treated on a first-come, first-served basis and see the first available doctor after waiting in the queue. The arrival pattern for a typical day is:

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Arrival Rate,

Time patients/hour

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9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 13

3 p.m. - 7 p.m. 10

7 p.m. - 12a.m. 18

12 a.m. – 9 a.m. 9 ________________________________________________

These arrivals follow a Poisson distribution, and treatment times, 12 minutes on the average, follows the negative exponential distribution.

Questions

1. How many doctors should be on duty during each period to maintain the level of patient care expected? Present calculations in Excel and explain your results.
2. What other elements of managing queues would you apply to reduce the negative effects of waiting?

Price: $14.22

Solution: The downloadable solution consists of 9 pages, 522 words and 5 charts.
Deliverable: Word Document