Simulation in medical systems: An application in a hospital laboratory

It has always been crucial to understand behavior and parameters of systems that determines the performance. Managing the mobility and complexity of both manufacturing and service organizations is a critical issue. In order to represent and evaluate those mobile and complex systems, developing a model is a reliable option. In this study, model of a hospital laboratory is developed by Arena simulation software. Hormone and biochemistry laboratories are included since other laboratories have structural differences and are processed separately. The model includes the processes after doctors? making order which are; arrival of orders, order acceptance, barcoding, blood-letting, pneumatic delivery, sample acceptance, processing test, evaluating results and result approval. During these processes of the laboratory, delays are observed in different stages which affect time of patients? getting test results and accordingly diagnosis time increases. For this reason, in this study queue waitings and delays in the laboratory are examined with the aim of minimization of total time spent in system and enhancing quality of service provided to patients. Within the scope of this study, simulation model is run for a time period of 90 day in order to reveal system related problems and probable solutions are suggested.