Overview:
Waiting lines in healthcare are everywhere. Queuing theory is one of the main tools of Data Analytics/Operations Research. It is a quantitative approach to the analysis of the properties of waiting for lines (queues) when patients’ arrival (demand for service) and service time (supply) are random values. A set of examples from real hospital practice (the radiology department, Froedtert Hospital, WI) and an outpatient clinic with a different number of servers will be presented.
The use of queuing analytics will be demonstrated for the calculation
of the waiting lines and the number of exam rooms with different
patient arrival rates, the need for buffer capacity as a hedge against
randomness, steady-state queuing vs. non-steady state, as well as the
effect of the unit’s scale on waiting time.
Assumptions and limitations of analytic queuing models will be highlighted and summarized in Tool.
Excel spreadsheet and some simple analytic formulas for queues with random vs. non-random patient arrivals.
Why you should Attend:
While one could find rich literature on various aspects of queuing
theory, it is typically presented as an academic mathematical
development full of complicated equations which have a limited
application for practical use.
One should attend this webinar because it is focused on examples from
real hospital practice, not the complicated formulas and mathematics of
the probability theory. All presented examples are aided by the provided
Excel spreadsheet by the instructor with real hospital experience. His
experience, in particular with queuing modeling, was presented in his
widely cited book with more than 10,000 sales worldwide: Kolker, A.,
"Healthcare Management Engineering: What does this fancy word really
mean?" SpringerBriefs, NY, 2012.
This book was used as the main text for the training course by the
National Health System, the UK, as well as by the Lubar School of
Business at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for the graduate
course on Healthcare delivery systems and data analytics.
Areas Covered in the Session:
- What is queuing theory? Why queuing theory?
- Queuing System Characteristics
- Population Source
- Servers
- Arrival Patterns
- Service Patterns
- The average number of customers/patients in the queue
- The average wait time in the queue
- Measures of Queuing System Performance
- Model Formulations
- Single Server (M/M/1)
- Multiple Servers (M/M/s)
- Multiple exercises and demonstrations with discussions and
explanations of the underlying fundamental management principles using
the instructor-provided Excel spreadsheet
Who Will Benefit:
- Nursing Managers
- Chief Nursing Officers
- Directors and VP of quality and operations improvements