A queuing network analysis model in emergency departments

This paper establishes a general multi-stage queuing network model with feedback patient flow to analyze the behavior of patients flow among the stages and the performance of emergency departments(ED) in a hospital. The queuing network is decomposed into a set of single queuing systems that include a tandem queuing and a closed queuing system. The parameter values of the system are obtained from observations through parameter estimation. The complex interaction between the neighbor stages is analyzed and the expression of the patients flow between different stages is calculated in steady state by routing probability in the system. The main performance indicator formulas are developed and results are derived by using the parameter values. Some insights are derived from experiment and numeric analysis in a case study.