Math problem

Question

The client is considering a triage strategy that would allocate greater resources to the ER automatically when more than 35 patients are admitted in under an hour. They expect this to reduce wait times from an average of 100 minutes to an average of 60 minutes for the 20% of patients affected. If the hospital receives an average of around 700 patients per day, how many total patient-minutes of wait time will be saved by this policy?

Answer: 5600 patient minutes.

How did they get this answer?

Answer 1

Minutes saved: 100-60 = 40

Patients impacted: 20% * 700 = 140

Patient minutes = 40 * 140 = 5600.

Answer 2

Hi there,

This is indeed an interesting, very specific question, so I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

Contradictory to what other coaches said, this is a classical operational excellence question/ calculation. Thus, you would need to calculate the time savings for the affected (share of the) population.
As pointed out below, you would have 40 minutes (100 minutes - 60 minutes) time savings per patient affected. The patients affected are 20% out of 700, thus 140. (700 * 20% * (100 min - 60 min)

In case you want a more detailed discussion on the whole case study and what the ideal approach would be, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

Answer 3

Lay things out simply in a Table - that helps a lot!

Answer 4

Hi there,

Anonymous B has provided the answer.

This is a classic breakeven. Make sure you understand all of the applications of breakeven and how to setup the formula in various contexts!

Check out prior Q&As for help here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum?query=breakeven

Answer 5

700*20%*(100-60)