Nightmarish Waiting Time at Sarokar Hospital: A Case Study
Piyush Gupta
Birla Global University, Odisha, India
Amit Sachan
Indian Institute of Management Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Vivek Mishra
Birla Global University, Odisha, India
Volume 18: 2024, pp. 49-70; ABSTRACT
This case examines the concerns of Dr. Madhu Verma, head of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (OB/GYN) at Sarokar
Hospital, related to the waiting times that patients had to encounter during their outpatient visits. Many
patients were complaining about high waiting times in the patient satisfaction survey. At the very heart
of Sarokar’s mission was the satisfaction of patients by providing quality healthcare services. The Dr. Verma
was further aggravated by the upcoming annual performance assessment meeting. The management would review
the performance, patients’ feedback, and other important factors related to each department within the
hospital. Dr. Verma was planning to put a proposal before top management to outsource a process consultant
to reduce waiting times, impart effective capacity and demand management, and initiate smooth process flow
in the OB/GYN’s outpatient department. This case allows students to understand a real-world service operations
situation, including customer-introduced variability. It enables them to exercise process analysis concepts
using discrete-event simulation modelling software to model, analyse, and improve the problem at Sarokar Hospital,
and thereby propose different scenarios to the hospital’s management.
Keywords: process improvement; managing demand, level capacity strategy, chase demand strategy, managing capacity, discrete event
simulation, service operations, patient satisfaction, healthcare.
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