Choosing the right checkout line at the supermarket can be frustrating. Just when one line looks like an express lane to the parking lot, a customer might need to search every pocket for a coupon, or the cashier might need to call a manager.
Just as no shopper enjoys an unexpectedly long wait to buy groceries, no patient enjoys long waits and delays to see a physician. However, physician shortages and other factors present challenges to providing timely access to care. More than 80 percent of physicians said they were over-extended or at full capacity in 2014, according to a survey of 20,000 physicians from The Physicians Foundation.
Luckily, there is a mathematical strategy that can be applied to both waiting in line at the supermarket and to improving the flow of systems throughout a hospital. It's called "Queuing Theory." Developed by Danish mathematician Agner Krarup Erlang, queuing theory maximizes resources and minimizes wait times.
At a supermarket, queuing theory can be applied by creating a serpentine line, or a single winding line for all registers. That way, customers are able to go to the next available register, and it minimizes the impact of delays.
This same theory can be applied to healthcare. Take emergency departments for example. "As utilization rises above 80-85 percent, waits and rejections increase exponentially," Kirk Jensen, MD, executive vice president of EmCare, wrote in a contributed article for Becker's Hospital Review. "In unit after unit, where they have been able to drop down to even 90 percent utilization, hospitals are better able to handle the inflows and the variation. As a result, throughput goes up, margins go up, and healthcare worker satisfaction goes up. Finally, patient satisfaction rises as waiting times decrease."
Hospitals that are better able to match capacity and demand will be better equipped to manage patient flow. This can have a profound positive effect on admissions, wait times and the patient experience.
To learn more about queuing theory and other core strategies to optimize hospital-wide flow, especially within alternative models of care such as accountable care organizations, clinically integrated networks and patient-centered medical homes, join Dr. Jensen, and Thom Mayer, MD, executive vice president at EmCare, for a complimentary webinar July 9.