The Application of Queuing Theory on Patient Waiting Time in Ante-natal Care Clinic

Abstract

Waiting lines have become an eyesore in our daily lives. Waiting in line popularly called, "queue" causes inconveniences to individuals (pregnant women) and significant costs to industries and public sectors. Expectant mothers queue for minutes, hours, days or months to receive Medical service – waiting before, during or after served. The effect of queuing about the time wasted by pregnant women to use clinical services is overwhelmingly becoming an important source of concern to most public Healthcare providers. Thus; keeping an Expectant mother waiting too long could result in danger to her health and the future baby as well as waiting cost. Providing too much service capacity to operate a system involves excessive cost. But not providing enough capacity service results in excessive waiting time and cost. In this study, the queuing characteristics at the ante-natal care clinic of the Jos University Teaching Hospital were analyzed using a Multi-Server Queuing Model and the waiting and service Costs were determined with the prime aim to evaluate the optimal service level. Data for this study was collected at the ante-natal care clinic for four weeks through initial observations, interviews and by administered questionnaires, the data was analyzed with the aid of TORA software and standard queuing formulas. The results of the analysis explicitly showed: average queue length, waiting time of pregnant women, as well as overworking of Doctors at the clinic could reduce at an optimal server level of six Doctors and a minimum total cost. As against the current server level of 4 Doctors at post with a high total cost which incur waiting and service costs. This model will help decision and other policies makers to solve the multi – server queuing problem where capacity and limited resource gives rises to longer waiting and services time.