1.The hematology lab manager has received complaints that the turnaround time for blood tests is too long. Data from the past month show that the arrival rate of blood samples to one technician in the lab is five per hour and the service rate is six per hour. Using queuing theory, and assuming that (a) both rates are exponentially distributed and (b) the lab is at steady state, determine the following measures: • Capacity utilization of the lab • Average number of blood samples in the lab • Average time that a sample waits in the queue • Average number of blood samples waiting for testing • Average time that a blood sample spends in the lab 2. What is patient flow? Name two performance metrics for flow and the tools to improve those metrics. Explain why the tools that you list will improve the named performance metrics.
