Poster
Client Context
This Senior Design team worked with the Interventional Radiology Department at Emory University Healthcare Midtown location. The department consists of two physicians, thee procedure rooms, and seven pre-post procedure care areas (PPCAs). The department sees 9.5 patients per day on average, and the patient process flow consists of patient arrival, pre-procedure preparation, procedure, recovery, and discharge.
Project Objective
Patients currently experience significant delays within the system. This is shown by the fact that patient appointments, on average, begin 30 minutes later than requested. In addition, the Midtown location of Emory currently has a patient wait list of 200+ patients so new patients cannot obtain procedures until 2-3 months from now. In order to alleviate these problems within the system, the project objective was to reduce patient delays and increase patient throughput.
Design Strategy
The team created a simulation model in order to 1) identify bottlenecks within the system and 2) test new implementations to the system. A comprehensive validation of the simulation model was completed using KS tests to compare actual versus simulation distributions of time in the system.
Deliverables
The team delivered the following recommendations to revise three areas of the system.
1. Procedure scheduling. A list of new procedure duration allocations based on historical data. This allows for more accurate scheduling that will reduce delays.
2. Upgrade Room 3. The team recommended that Emory Midtown IR upgrade the 3rd procedure room to handle anesthesia cases. This allows for more flexibility, which will increase the amount of patients that can be seen.
3. Implement triage rooms. The team recommended that Emory Midtown IR revise their current policy that reserves pre and post procedure rooms for patients while they are in procedure. This reduces idle time within the pre and post procedure rooms, which reduces delays within the system.
Project Information
Student Team
Chris Bauer, Ben Bradley, Chase Brooks, Taylor Fabacher, Cariana Morales, Alex Norwood, Bhargava Samanthula, Alan Tolar
Faculty Advisor
Faculty Evaluator
