Mass Dispensing Of Medicine During Large Scale Emergencies

The Public Health Department wanted to test a plan to mass dispense medicine during a large-scale public health emergency without the cost of an actual drill. The goal of the plan was to serve 6,000 residents in 200 minutes.

Students at the University of Pittsburgh used Simio to simulate and test the plan. This plan looked at the Point of Dispensing, or the building where the medicine would be dispensed. The simulation looked at the results of an actual drill in 2008 and expanded on that information. Simio showed that this goal of serving 6,000 residents in 200 minutes was not possible with the manning used for the drill in 2008.

The students used the software to change factors to show what it would take to meet that goal. They determined that layout and process changes could be used to ensure that the physically handicapped were consistently served in less than five minutes. They also determined that the use of video sign-in did not add enough to the process to justify the cost, but that option isn’t harmful if the equipment is already available.