Could we employ the queueing theory to improve efficiency during future mass causality incidents?

BACKGROUND: Preparation for a disaster or accident-related mass casualty events is often based on experience. The objective measures or tools for evaluating decision-making and effectiveness during such events are underdeveloped. Queueing theory has been suggested to evaluate the effectiveness of mass causality incidents (MCI) plans. OBJECTIVE: Using different types of real MCI, we aimed to determine if a queueing network model could be used as a tool to assist in preparing plans to address mass causality incidents. METHODS: We collected information from two types of mass casualty events: a motor vehicle accident and a dust explosion. Patient characteristics, time intervals of every working station, numbers of physicians and nurses attending, and time required by physicians and nurses during these two MCIs were collected and used for calculation in a queueing network model. Balanced efficiency was determined by calculating the numbers of server, i.e., nurses and physicians, in the two MCIs. RESULTS: Efficient patient flows were found in both MCIs. However, excessive medical manpower supply was revealed when the queueing network model was applied to assess the MCIs. The best fitting result, i.e., the most efficient man power utilization, can be calculated by the queueing network models. Furthermore, balanced efficiency may be a more suitable condition than the highest efficiency man power utilization when faced with MCIs. CONCLUSION: The queueing network model is a flexible tool that could be used in different types of MCIs to observe the degree of efficiency when handling MCIs. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13049-019-0620-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.