Problem with a patient blocking the waiting line

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Tee Hiett asked Dec 5, '20 Ben Wilson commented Dec 11, '20

Problem with a patient blocking the waiting line

The attached model runs as expected with the first 6 patients. The 7th patient gets into WaitingLine2 and does not leave, thereby blocking the subsequent patients. Yet patients 2 and 3 follow the same path as patient 7 without any problems.

I cannot figure out what's causing this so I'm turning to the experts.

Thanks for your help

Software Version:

FlexSim 20.1.3

flexsim 20.1.3 waiting line

cardiology-autosave-3.fsm (1.6 MiB)

· 1

Ben Wilson ♦♦ commented · Dec 11, 2020 at 02:33 PM

Hi @Tee Hiett, was Matthew Gillespie's answer helpful? If so, please click the red "Accept" button on their answer. Or if you still have questions, add a comment and we'll continue the conversation.

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0 ·

Answer 1 · 2020-12-07T20:41:44Z

Matthew Gillespie answered Dec 7, '20

The Wait in Line activity comes right after an Escort Patient activity where the patient is escorted to the waiting line. So the patient gets in the waiting line in the Escort Patient activity and starts walking down the line. This works OK as long as the escort activity ends before the person reaches the end of the line. In the case of your 7th patient, the patient reaches the end of the line before the staff finishes their travel. The Wait in Line activity listens to an event on the waiting line that says that a person reached the end of the line, however, if the patient is already at the end of the line when the activity starts this event will never fire.

I would recommend not escorting the patient directly into the waiting line. Instead escort them to a spot right next to the line and then use the Wait in Line activity to have them enter the line. That's what I did in the attached model.

cardiology_waitingLine.fsm

Alternatively you could leave the escort activity as it is and remove the Pat in Line activity.

cardiology-waitingline.fsm (1.6 MiB)

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