Development of Simulation Model to Determine the Optimal Number of Pharmacist at the Hospital Pharmacy Considering the Waiting Time

병원약제부의 적정약사수를 결정하기 위해 대기시간을 고려한 시뮬레이션 모델 개발

In order to improve the hospital service quality, some hospitals try to reduce the outpatients' waiting time in the hospital. One of the dissatisfied service items at the hospital is the long waiting time to take the prescribed medicine. In most cases, the smaller the number of pharmacists, the longer could be the waiting time. The suggestion of criteria for optimal allocation of appropriate number of pharmacists must be very important to manage the hospital pharmacy. In this paper, we suggest the method to figure out appropriate number of pharmacists through the real situation study at the Sampling Medical Center Pharmacy. We present the simulation study results using the simulation package ARENA and the analysis of statistical distribution of the arriving prescriptions. The result of this research could be applied to the other service business to figure out the optimal allocation of available human resources and to do the job analysis for better service quality.