Using Simulation Technique on Process Reengineering in a Hospital-OPD Pharmacy－A Case Study of a Medical Center
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Chen, Jen-Chieh
Abstract
Since the National Health Insurance began, the medical industry environment became more competitive. Improving service quality and lowering expenditures in order to promote the operating efficiency and effectiveness of the organizations have become the key factors for the organizations to survive. “Waiting” is one of the important factors that affect customer satisfaction. Shortening the waiting time could improve satisfaction and service quality. Science evidence is very important at present; therefore, we need more evidence-based policy-making evaluation before we implement new plans. At this time, simulation skill becomes an appropriate decision making supporting tool.he objectives of this study are analyzing outpatient drug dispensing process of a medical center, and implementing the theme and computer technique of simulation to build outpatient drug dispensing process models. Increasing resources is the easiest way to solve waiting problem, but resources are limited and rare. It is the most important issue for managers to know how to allocate the limited resources on right places. Furthermore, the investigators use process reengineering concept to build several alternative models. This study acquired data that were never been recorded in the pharmacy department before, and these data could be used for further research or decision making. Also, the results of the simulation can help managers to make better process, shorten the waiting time, and improve service efficiency.he results of study discovered that there are bottlenecks in the outpatient drug dispensing process. Operational time can be saved by different ways; such as reducing the probabilities of dealing with unnecessary tasks and finish errands by using less time. In the other aspects, increasing the number of drug dispensing windows is the most effective way to shorten operation time, and the second effective way is increasing the number of printers. The result also found that the allocation appropriateness of resources is very important because it will affect the fluency of process and operation time. This is a case study of a pharmacy department of one hospital; therefore, the results may not apply to other hospitals whose systems are different. However, this study is very referable for researchers who engaged in time study or simulation study.
Subjects
computer simulation
system simulation
pharmacy department
outpatient drug dispensing
process improvement
time study
Type
thesis
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