Discrete Event Simulation of a Multi-Facility Healthcare System

The quality of health services can be measured by productivity, waiting times, efficiency, patient satisfaction and stress on medical staff. Despite the high attention on the health sector, they undergo many challenges due to increase in high demand for health services that is attributed to the population growth rate and increase in the waiting time leading to patient dissatisfaction. The increased demand for radiology department services has lead to a considerable increase in the patient waiting times and subsequently has negatively affected the patient's satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to reduce patient waiting times, improve system throughput and improve resources utilization in radiology department by formulating and implementing a model that is based on Appointment scheduling system. A discrete event simulation model was developed using Arena simulation software to investigate different alternatives to improve the overall system delivery based on the Appointment scheduling system. The result shows that the implemented Appointment Scheduling system has a great impact on the system by reducing the waiting time by 85% at the consultation room and 12.5% at the cash office.