Eliminating waiting time at a 24 hour medical emergency facility

Abstract

Medipark is a 24-hour Medical emergency facility situated in Rooihuiskraal, Centurion. Currently this practice is providing a daily average of 350 patients with vital healthcare services. The practice is constantly aiming to be the benchmark for the delivery of quality healthcare within the community. Therefore it follows that a patient`s negative experience regarding waiting time will radically influence the perception of the quality of the service provided. In emergency situations every minute wasted by being confined to a waiting room will certainly have a detrimental effect on the outcome of the healthcare intervention. Medipark therefore strives towards establishing innovative procedures that would eliminate patient waiting time. The first and foremost aim of this project is to reduce patient waiting time without causing an increase in doctor idle time. The focus of this project will however be on: unscheduled and emergency patients as this has been determined as the category with the most improvement potential. As solution strategy, a unique triage system (called MediTriage) has been identified and accompanying implementation procedures are suggested. In order to prove that reduced waiting time can be achieved, MediTriage is modeled in the form of a priority queuing system with the use of Lingo R software and verified with the qtsPlus R addin for Microsoft Excel R . Ultimately this project culminates into the amount of waiting time that can be reduced. This would determine whether or not the endeavour is worth pursuing. In the case of MediTriage, the savings outrank the liability on part of the practice. Eliminating waiting time altogether is unrealistic; however the proven reduction in unscheduled and emergency waiting time indicates a feasible solution to the initial problem.