A QUEUING SYSTEM ANALYSIS: A CASE STUDY OF JKUAT HOSPITAL TO INVESTIGATE THE OPTIMAL TIME AN

OUTPATIENT SPENDS IN THE SYSTEM BY MAXIMIZING THE SERVERS AVAILABLE USING M/M/m MODEL
Clarice Chibalonza Aguta, Caroline Wambui Njeri, Angela Wanjiku Gicharu, Rosemary Ndila Munyaka & Kanundu Allan Amani

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY n Pn

Queuing theory is a branch of mathematics that studies how lines form, how they
function, and why they malfunction. It can also be referred to as the study of the
0 0.1667
movement of people, objects, or information through a line. Queues cause 1 0.1389
inconvenience to individuals and economic costs to organizations and countries. 2 0.1157
The studying of congestion in a process, as well as its causes, is useful in creating 3 0.09645 The pie chart shows the average waiting time of each queue for the patients awaiting to .
more efficient and cost-effective services and systems. The various components of see the doctors. Room 4 has the largest waiting time compared to the other rooms. This
4 0.08038 means that the hospital system assigns more patients to room 4 compared to other
waiting in the line include the arrival process, the service process, the number of
servers, the number of system places, and the number of customers. Queuing 5 0.06698 rooms
theory aims to design balanced systems that serve customers quickly and 6 0.05582
efficiently, but do not cost too much to be sustainable (Mansa and Kvilhaug, 7 0.04651
2003). 8 0.03876
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Queues are a common yet generally unpleasant phenomenon, especially in
9 0.032301
hospitals. Long queues may form due to an overflow of patients (depending on the 10 0.02692
time of day or month), or limited resources to serve the patients (such as doctors
available). This may result in poor services, which in turn can result in the
deterioration of patients’ health, dissatisfaction with general healthcare, and
ultimately an unwillingness to go to the hospital even when seriously ill. On the
other hand, increasing the number of resources in a hospital may incur a high cost
to the hospital, which may not be affordable. Identifying a suitable queuing model
for a particular waiting line is not an easy task due to the stochastic nature of
AVERAGE WAITING TIME
arrival times and service rates. Different queue systems have different models that FOR DIFFERENT PERIODS
best fit the situation being studied. The proposed study intended to develop a
model that would be effectively used to find the optimal time an outpatient would 40 The figure above shows that the level of satisfaction of patients is not only dependent on
spend the system. 35 service rate. Although some patients were served in a short time resulting in shorter
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY waiting periods, other factors played a role in their level of satisfaction. These factors
30 include communication from the servers, clarity of directions from both the servers and
General Objective
To determine the optimal time an outpatient spends in the system at the JKUAT 25 the hospital itself.
Hospital. 20
Specific Objectives 15
i. To determine the average number of patients that can be served at a time. CONCLUSION
10 In summary, healthcare management are increasingly aware of the need to use
ii. To determine the waiting time of patients by the average arrival rate and
service rate. 5 systematic and manageable system in their hospitals. This is to enable efficiency and
iii. To maximize the number of servers (service channels) available using linear 0 effectiveness of their services. This results to fast services and thus shorter waiting time.
programming ROOM 2 ROOM 3 ROOM 4 ROOM 6 The patient satisfaction also is higher. The servers can serve more patients within a
shorter period of time where the queuing discipline is applied effectively and followed to
4.3.4 Probability that there is no Outpatient in the System(P0) MORNING AFTERNOON the latter.
The probability that there is no patient in the system was calculated using the RECOMMENDATION
formula below; Finally, to reduce the overall time a patient waits for service in the hospital, we
P0 = 1- (λ / μ) recommend fully staffing the available service stations. For instance, there are 7
=1-(1/18)/ (1/15) consultation rooms but only 4 are in use, only one person is usually at the triage while
P0 =0.1667 they can accommodate 2 people. This certainly leads to longer waiting time for people in
the queue.
WAITING TIME REFERENCES
4.3.5 Probability of n Patients being in the System (Pn)
The probability of n patients being in the system P n is given by: The bar graph above shows theOBSERVA-
different waiting times for different rooms at Whitt, W. (2016). Queues with time-varying arrival rates: A bibliography. Working paper.
Columbia University.
Pn = (λ/ μ) ^n* P0
TIONS
various times of day. From the table, patients who visit the hospital during
morning hours tend to wait in queues longer
ROOM than
3 patients who visit the hospital
Conner-Spady, D. Z., Nash, B., Stelfox, T., Noseworthy, T. W., Marshall, D. A. (2017). What
is the influence of single-entry models on access to elective surgical procedures? A
in the afternoon. Additionally, patients directed to room 4 wait longer to be seen
ROOM
by the doctor than patients directed to other 2
rooms. systematic review. BMJ Open, 7.
ROOM 4 Kinyanjui, M. (2019, July 2). Title of the article. The Star.
ROOM 6
23% 15%
19%
43%