Modeling Queuing System in Healthcare Centers. A Case Study of The Dental Department of The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Bernard Sefah1*, & Collins Affum2
1,2 Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
DOI – http://doi.org/10.37502/IJSMR.2024.71111

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Abstract

This paper analyses the use of the queuing model in healthcare, emphasizing the Outpatient and Dental Department (ODD) of a city hospital in Kumasi, Ghana. Mathematical and machine learning approaches are used to analyze patient flow, waiting, and service times. It is widely recognized that, due to high demand and limited resources in these hospitals, a hospital should promptly treat its patients, especially those in need of critical dental care. Still, surprisingly, this is not achieved in practice, particularly in government-owned health institutions, because of high demand and limited resources in these hospitals. To enhance the level of admittance to care in ODD, the hospitals should obtain a central tray setup system for instruments required for the different dental procedures done in the dental department to reduce the time spent sorting them up, thereby reducing the amount of time spent in queue and also increasing the number of dentists from one to three.

Keywords: Queuing theory, healthcare, ODD, m/m/s model, dental. Simulation, FCFS, patient satisfaction, arrival time, service time, Kendall’s model.

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