ANALYSIS OF WAITING TIMES IN THE IHSS PHARMACY AREA

Abstract

The present study has analyzed the waiting times in the Pharmacy area of the Honduran Institute of Social Security (IHSS), with the objective of evaluating the factors that may affect the long wait tolerated by beneficiaries. To understand this problem, a mixed approach has been applied that combined the collection of quantitative data - such as times between arrivals, waiting times and service times - together with qualitative observations on the patient’s journey and how the staff operates. The dependent variable has been defined as the average waiting time, average time in the system and number of patients served. As independent variables, the type of patient, time between arrivals, service time, time between service and inactivity, and the number of windows. Data collection has been carried out for three weeks at the times of greatest demand, using instruments such as Timestamper Log, Google Forms and Excel. The results obtained from the simulation model showed that older adult patients have a longer average waiting time, the main influencing factor being the inactivity of the windows during certain sections of the day. Through the analysis of different operational changes, it was found that there is no single solution capable of simultaneously reducing waiting times for all types of patients; that is, some scenarios generate benefits for certain groups, while negatively impacting others.