A SYSTEMATIC SURVEY ON DIFFERENT MODELING METHODS TO MANAGE WAITING TIME IN AMBULATORY PATIENT SERVICES

Hospitals experience frequent system block whenever or wherever there is more footfall than the expected number of patients. In order to manage this patient number, the hospitals have opted for numerous methods to cope up with these operational and structural problems in the hospital or any health care centre and improve patient’s overall experience. The first step towards betterment in health services is to reduce the Outdoor patients’ waiting time. This will improve the level of Patient satisfaction as well as overall efficiency of the system. For this purpose, several types of Operations Research Models have been developed in Health Care field. These models help in overcoming the waiting time issues faced by Outpatient in Hospitals that have been further discussed in the paper. Also, the use of electronic health records and practice management tools by Medical practitioners has enabled faster care and effective patient management. The goal is to provide relevant information to the Healthcare analysts engaged in enhancement of hospital efficiency through an appropriate OR model However, there is scope of further research in hospital system optimization for improved co-ordination between hospital departments, waiting time of patients queuing for