Renaissance Clinic is a hospital dedicated to the health care of women. It is located in the hill country surrounding Austin, Texas, and offers an environment that is unique in Austin. At the time of a visit, a patient of Dr. Margaret Thompson's practice is directed by the receptionist either to a nurse clinician or to Dr. Thompson. On some occasions, a patient might see both the nurse and the doctor. In the Renaissance Clinic (B) case, we used a computer simulation model to determine resource allocation.
For this case, we want to apply queuing theory to Dr. Thompson's practice. The data in Table 16.7were collected over several days of typical activity and the histograms indicate that arrival rates and service rates fit a Poisson distribution. Figure 16.6shows the flow of patients during routine office visits.
Assignments
1. Assume the waiting line at the receptionist, the nurse clinician, and the doctor are managed independently with an FCFS priority. Using queuing formulas and the assumption that patients exiting from an activity follow a Poisson distribution, estimate the following statistics:
a. Average waiting time in each of the queues (i.e., receptionist, nurse clinician, and physician).
b. Average time in the entire system for each of the three patient paths.
c. Overall average time in the system (i.e., expected time for an arriving patient).
d. Average idle time in minutes per hour of work for the receptionist, the nurse clinician, and the doctor.
2. What are the key assumptions involved in your analysis above? Discuss the appropriateness of each in this situation.
3. What would be the impact on the above calculations of adding a second doctor to the clinic and sharing the doctor queue between them on a "first MD available" basis?
4. The clinic is considering adopting a queue priority system that is determined by the time of entry into the system at the receptionist. How might patients waiting for the doctor react to this policy?
