Author:
Biswas Atanu,Karmahapatra Tapas Kumar,Dey Surya Prakash
Abstract
Context/Background: Queuing, a major problem faced by beneficiaries availing services in public health care system, may also have influence on the level of satisfaction among beneficiaries. Aims/Objectives: To describe the queuing dynamics in the OPD, to explore different factors influencing the level of satisfaction among the beneficiaries and their perception regarding possible ways to improve the queuing situation.
Methodology: A hospital-based analytical study was conducted in an OPD of Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospital, West Bengal, among 202 beneficiaries. Data were collected from subjects, selected from random queue in total 30 shifts (30 minutes each) on different working days, using predesigned, pretested, questionnaire.
Results: Queuing dynamics revealed utilization factor of 75%, while 25% probability of the system being idle. Only 39.1% of the subjects were satisfied with the service in Paediatric OPD, in context of waiting in queue. MLR revealed subjects waiting in queue for a duration ≤ 1 hour and those with > 4 minutes consultation time were found to be more satisfied.
Conclusions: Considering variable consultation time, arrival and service rates at the OPDs and resources, a well-planned system can minimize the waiting time and thus improve the level of satisfaction among the beneficiaries.
Subject
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health,Medicine (miscellaneous),Epidemiology
Reference17 articles.
1. Green, L. (2006). Queueing Analysis in Healthcare. In: Hall, R.W. (eds) Patient Flow: Reducing Delay in Healthcare Delivery. Interna-tional Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 91. Springer, Boston, MA. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33636-7_10
2. Bindman AB, Grumbach K, Keane D, Rauch L, Luce JM. Consequences of Queuing for Care at a Public Hospital Emergency Department. JAMA; 1991 Aug; 266(8): 1091-6. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.266.8.1091 PMid:1865541
3. Mehandiratta R. Application of queuing theory in health care. International Journal of Computing and Business Research. 2011 May; 2(2).
4. Erlang AK. Solution of Some Problems in the Theory of Probabilities of Significance in Automatic Telephone Exchanges. El-ektroteknikeren. 1917; 13:5.
5. Prasad SV, Badshah VH, Koka TA. Mathematical analysis of a single queue multi server and multi queue multi server queuing mod-els: comparison study. Global Journal of Mathematical Analysis. 2015; 3(3): 97-104. Doi: https://doi.org/10.14419/gjma.v3i3.4689