Ensure Area is Monitored by at Least One Resource

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Mark S2 asked May 28, '18 Cliff King edited May 29, '18

Ensure Area is Monitored by at Least One Resource

Hello,

I have a model where patients are escorted in and out of a waiting area for treatment by one nursing group. A vital check is completed when they arrive and while they are recovering. They wait for a further 30 min after their recovery vital check and then exit.

I need to ensure that at least one nurse is present in the area at all times, while still being allowed to perform tasks. So for example, one patient could be doing their arrival vital check while another patient has 5 minutes left in his/her recovery waiting time.

My thinking is that I could use a start condition for the patients being escorted (Activity 90), such that they could only do so IF the census of the waiting room area = 0 OR (two nurses are in close proximity to the waiting room..because at least one needs to stay).

A second option, is possibly to assign multiple waiting processes (30 min recovery time for each patient) for which a nurse could be performing concurrently.

A third option I suppose, is to have one nurse designated as the transporter and one designated as the waiting room resource (i.e. split the resource groups).

I thought of the third option as I was writing this...and it will probably suffice. But if I needed to implement it using the 1st or 2nd option, which would you choose/is possible?

Thanks!

Software Version:

FlexSim HC 5.3.4

healthcare concurrent processes

ect-v2-may22.fsm (880.5 KiB)

Answer 1 · 2018-05-29T20:34:25Z

Cliff King answered May 29, '18 Cliff King edited May 29, '18

All three options seem about the same to me, although checking for whether a nurse is in "close proximity" as part of option 1 could be tricky and doesn't seem to be what you'd want exactly. You'd probably want to check that the current number of idle staff is greater than the current number of patients in the waiting room, or something along those lines.

Option 2 would be quick to implement so you might as well implement both option 2 in one model and option 3 in another model and then compare the results. I wouldn't expect much difference, but you never know!

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