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Methods Inf Med 1981; 20(02): 76-79
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1635295
Original Article
Schattauer GmbH

Formal and Simulation Models for a Phlebotomy Station Service System

FORMALE UND SIMULATIONSMODELLE FÜR EINEN PHLEBOTOMIESTATIONSBETRIEB
C. C. Whitcomb
1   From the Department of Pathology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA
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Publication History

Publication Date:
15 February 2018 (online)

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The behavior of a central phlebotomy station for an out-patient medical care facility is analyzed by a formal service system model (queuing theory) and by a computer simulation model. Although the distributions of the intervals between successive patient arrivals and the duration of individual phlebotomies do not conform to the requirements of the formal model, some calculated system characteristics, such as the efficiencies of individual phlebotomists, agree quite closely with the results generated by simulation. The two models yield different values for the optimal number of phlebotomists in an econometric analysis, however.

Das Verhalten einer zentralen Phlebotomiestation in einer Klinikambulanz wird mit Hilfe eines formalen mathematischen und eines Computer-Simulationsmodells analysiert. Obwohl die Verteilungskurven der zeitlichen Intervalle zwischen der Ankunft des Patienten und den Zeiten, die die Phlebotomien benötigten, nicht dem formalen Modell gleichen, stimmen doch einige der berechneten Systemeigenschaften (wie z.B. die Fähigkeit individueller Phlebotomisten) gut mit dem Computermodell überein. In einer wirtschaftlichen Analyse ergeben jedoch die beiden Modelle verschiedene Werte für die optimale Zahl von Phlebotomisten.

Key-Words:

Health Care Delivery - Phlebotomy - Queuing Theory - Simulation

Schlüssel-Wörter:

Gesundheitsversorgung - Phlebotomie - Warteschlangen - Simulation
 

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