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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