Healthcare service improvement at a government managed clinic

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.