Analysis of COVID-19 college testing facility during move-in days using discrete event simulation model

ABSTRACT

With COVID-19 still present, bringing students safely back to campus is a critical task. COVID-19 testing has become synonymous with controlling an outbreak;however, concerns about how to safely test numerous students in a short amount of time have arisen. Simulation modeling and analysis provide valuable solutions by giving clear insights into complex systems. A discrete event simulation (DES) model is used to study a COVID-19 testing facility at a university. The aim of the simulation study is to optimally allocate limited resources, identify bottlenecks, and propose an alternative scheduling strategy to improve system performances. COVID-19 testing completion time, waiting time in queue, and throughput are assessed for efficiency and safety. The optimal ratio of resources allows for efficient allocation of resources, without reducing system capability. With standard scheduling of arrivals, long queues in the first 10 minutes increase the risk of COVID-19. Overlapping scheduling is a method of scheduling with overlapping time blocks that distributes arrivals more evenly. The proposed alternative of overlapping scheduling addresses the issue of long queues, potential close contacts, and low system operational efficiency. The proposed alternative reduces the maximum arrival queue by 64.51% and the maximum COVID-19 testing time by 16.67%. The proposed alternative can handle a 33.33% increase in demand, resulting in equal average COVID-19 testing times as the baseline model. © 2021 IISE Annual Conference and Expo 2021. All rights reserved.