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Amira Khablein avatar image
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Amira Khablein asked Lou Keller answered

Shared Waiting Room for 2 Waiting Lines

I made a model using this answer to have patients automatically use a waiting line if the desk is busy and the waiting room if the line is full.

However, I've now added a second waiting line for a checkout desk and I'm trying to have those patients also use the waiting room when the check out line is full. This doesn't seem to be working though and patients are getting in the wrong line.

You can see the issue in this model once the lines fill up.

FlexSim HC 5.1.0
hcwaiting linewaiting room
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Matthew Gillespie avatar image
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Matthew Gillespie answered Amira Khablein commented

Since both waiting lines and the waiting room accept walking patients who can't get to their final destination, the waiting lines are accepting any patient in the waiting room regardless of where they're trying to go.

One solution is just to use 2 waiting rooms. This example model has two different waiting rooms, each in their own area. The logic of where the patient can go is all defined by the flowchart. So patients going to check out can only get to the correct waiting line and waiting area. This solution keeps your track simpler, but adds an extra waiting room and complicates the flowchart.

The other option is to rely less on the automatic acceptance of the waiting lines and put more decision logic in the track. In this example model I turned off the option to accept walking patients on the waiting lines. Instead I use the Based on Destination Status pickoption where I list the desk and then the waiting line as destinations. This is then followed by a decision point activity that checks if the patient made it to the desk. If not, the patient must be in the line and it starts an activity to send the patient to the desk.


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Amira Khablein avatar image Amira Khablein commented ·

170726-secondfloorsimulation.fsm

I'm coming back to this question because I am having similar issues with a different model. I have taken the suggestion of more decision points and relying less on the automatic acceptance of the waiting lines but the model just absolutely stops running at 9 am, I addressed this in a different forum topic and they recommended not using so many decision points- this results in my patients getting stuck in lines I don't want them to be in (but the model runs all day) Any insight would be very helpful! Thanks!

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Lou Keller avatar image
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Lou Keller answered

Hi Amira, I think you'll find different a different answer to your question that might complete your understanding of the way healthcare waiting lines work and how they can be modeled! Let me know if you have any additional questions once you've read the "How-to" paper! My best, Lou

waiting-line-models-normally-used-in-healthcare-si.zip


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