Abstract:
This project proposal is focused on the topic for the improvement of the healthcare
service at a government managed clinic in Olifantsfontein under management
Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Council. It is centrally situated in Olifantsfontein for easy access
of the community.
Currently the service turnaround time is so long that some patients have to go back
home without being attended to and on the surface its indicative of primarily the
shortage of resources. As one looks deeper into the situation it actually reveals other
additional aspects like deficiencies in the operational processes and the inefficiency of
staff members that cause such extreme delays with the service delivery and inevitably
the quality of healthcare service gets compromised.
The report suggests improving the identified problem by using industrial engineering
techniques and methodologies such as application of the queuing theory; process
analysis; quality assurance; and facility planning.
As the industrial engineering techniques have been applied to the problem, conclusions
about the clinics system could be drawn. To name a few: resources are poorly utilised,
the current system design can accommodate the service demand; and staff
management crops up as the main source of poor service delivery.
Recommendations made are those to improve system components such as the facility
layout, the operation processes, and better utilization of available resources for the
queuing model. Ad hoc industrial engineering tool, System of Profound Knowledge, was
recommended to improve the system holistically.
