Simulation and Optimization of the Hospital Registration Process using MedModel

In many Chinese hospitals, especially in big hospitals, it is a common phenomenon for patients to stand in a long queue and wait a considerable time for registration. In this paper, a field study is conducted in a Shanghai public hospital. The hospital´s registration process is investigated and the data of the inter-arrival time and every procedure´s service time are collected. Based on the realistic workflow and the operation data, a simulation model is set up and analyzed using MedModel, a kind of simulation software designed for healthcare industry. Through simulation and process redesign, some improvement approaches are studied and compared with one another. Finally, an optimized registration process is achieved that can shorten the average cycle time from 17.24 minutes to 3.15 minutes