Question: [ Module d: 20 Points] According to The Globe and Mail (OCTOBER 5, 2020), Private medical clinics are offering COVID-19 tests to Canadians willing to
- [Module d: 20 Points]According to The Globe and Mail (OCTOBER 5, 2020), Private medical clinics are offering COVID-19 tests to Canadians willing to pay a fee to circumvent lengthy lineups at government sites and long waits for results from laboratories. The for-profit clinics serve individual patients as well as companies that require employees to test negative for the coronavirus before returning to work. Individuals pay anywhere from $50 to $250 for a test. Suppose that, on a typical Monday, an average of 20 patients per hour arrive at a private COVID-19 testing center. There is one nurse at the center, and the average time required to take a sample is 2 minutes. It is assumed that service times may be described by the exponential distribution. A single line would be used, and the patient at the front of the line would go to the first available nurse. If a single nurse is used, find:
- What is the average time spent waiting in the queue? What is the average time spent in the system?
- What is the average number of patients waiting in the queue? What is the average number of patients in the system?
- What is the probability that the testing center is empty? What percentage of the time is the nurse busy?
- What is the probability that there are exactly five patients in the system? What is the probability that there are more than five patients in the system?
- The cost of the nurse is $40 per hour, but because of patients balking and reneging, the test center loses about $50 per hour of customer time spent waiting for the nurse to take a sample. Calculate the total queuing costs (i.e., service cost and patients waiting cost). The test centre operates 12 hours per day.
Step by Step Solution
There are 3 Steps involved in it
1 Expert Approved Answer
Step: 1 Unlock
Question Has Been Solved by an Expert!
Get step-by-step solutions from verified subject matter experts
Step: 2 Unlock
Step: 3 Unlock
