An application of the value stream mapping and computer simulation for reducing an average service time for patients in the emergency care unit : a case study of the out-patient emergency care unit, Srinagarind Hospital

摘要

The objective of this research is to propose guidelines for improving service efficiency in order to reduce theservice time for patients by applying the Lean tools to create the Value Stream Mapping for determining thepatterns of service process improvement, and to create a computer simulation model for comparing theservice times of each improved process. From the study of the three main types of patients which are thepatients returning home without intervention, the patients receiving X-rays and blood tests with diagnosis to return home, and the patients receiving blood tests with diagnosis to return home; the service processimprovement could be determined into fifteen scenarios and the results from computer simulation indicatedthat the sixth scenario of improvement could most reduce an average time for the typed-1 patients while thefifteenth scenario of improvement could most reduce the average times for the patients of types 2 and 3. Thisresearch therefore, proposed the fifteenth scenario for improving the service process, which could reducethe average service times for the patients of types 1, 2, and 3 to 15.99, 21.29, and 18.85 percentrespectively.