Question 6

Patients use a self-serve kiosk to confirm their arrival at an outpatient clinic. They then proceed to the receptionist to update any personal information. After that, a nurse will record the patient's vital signs. A physician will then consult with the patient and prescribe appropriate treatments. The patient will then visit the checkout station to settle payment and schedule the next appointment, if needed. Processing times and other information on the process are presented in the table below:

Resource	Process	Processing time (minutes per patient)	Number of workers	Wage rate ($per hour)
Self-service	Check in	1	n/a	n/a
Receptionist	Update information	5	2	15
Nurse	Record vital signs	15	3	30
Physician	Treat patient	30	8	100
Checkout	Collect payment	10	3	15

What would be the best process improvement idea from the following proposals, assuming an unlimited demand?

Group of answer choices

Increase check-in capacity

Hire more nurses

Hire more physicians

Move some work from the receptionist to the checkout clerk