How can I let a resource (nurse) do one activity for multiple patients?

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Christophe Compondu asked Jun 14 2016 at 9:20 AM Matthew Gillespie commented Jun 15 2016 at 7:33 PM

How can I let a resource (nurse) do one activity for multiple patients?

I can’t find an solution to model my observation room. I have different patient tracks. Some of them need a 60 min observation by a nurse after the MD exam. We have an observation room for that. The problem is when there are few patients to observe during 60 min, the nurse monitor each patient one by one, but in reality she can watch them all in the same time… If I do nothing, it will increase the global waiting time of each patient.

Software Version:

FlexSim HC 5.0.12

resource hc patient track activities

Answer 1 · 2016-06-14T17:20:39Z

Matthew Gillespie answered Jun 14 2016 at 5:20 PM Matthew Gillespie commented Jun 15 2016 at 7:33 PM

A resource can only be acquired by one patient at a time, although you can use a global process to represent a something the nurse needs to do that's not tied to a specific patient.

The modeling solution here depends on what level of detail you need and what other constraints the nurse has. If the nurse's only job is to monitor the observation room then you could just send patients to the room and not worry about telling the nurse to do anything.

However, if you need to make sure a nurse is in the room before sending a patient to the room, or if the nurse can't leave while a patient is still in the room then you'd need to use some combination of patient activities and global activities to make sure the nurse is in the room at the right time.

If you give me a few more details I could make a sample model for you.

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Christophe Compondu commented · Jun 15 2016 at 2:14 PM

Thanks a lot for your answer !

In my case, it's not the only job of the nurse.

1. Any RNs need to assist the MD in different patient track into the Xray room

2. Than the same RN who assist the MD should escort the patient to the observation room

3. Any RN should monitor the patient during 60 min

4. We cannot leave a patient into the observation room without a nurse

5. A nurse can monitor different patient in the same time

6. we should let the Xray room free as soon as possible (so, the patient can't wait into the xray room that a nurse is free to monitor him at the observation room)

I hope my precision will be more clear haha if you want I can also send you my small model!

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Matthew Gillespie ♦♦ Christophe Compondu commented · Jun 15 2016 at 7:33 PM

The attached model shows one way you could do this. Activity 21 is where the nurse observes the patient in the observation room. However, the logic for if 21 needs to start, when it needs to start, and how long it needs to last is all in the Activity Finished Trigger of activity 20.

I have a global variable, endObservation, keeping track of when the current observation period will end. When a new patient arrives it checks if the time it needs to be observed fits within the current observation period. If not, the patient starts activity 21, but delays it so it starts when the current observation period ends. A label, remObservTime, is set on the patient so that activity 21 knows how long the patient needs to be observed for. The global variable is then updated so that newer patients no how long the observation period is.

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observationroomexample.fsm (130.5 KiB)

observationtime.png (21.3 KiB)

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