Moving parameters for variable to set up - model behaviour changes - variables

Question

This one stumping me...
I have an ABM which generates new patients arriving to a hospital unit by random-poisson on a single patch (spout procedure). Each patient is assigned an area to go to and a time to spend in the unit according to the area and other assigned variables. When I created this with the distributions embedded in the procedures or reporters it worked fine every time, but when I code the random variables into the set up to make it easier to manipulate it regularly generates grossly abnormally low/high values (ranges not seen when run in original format) and sometimes the creation of new patients doesn't happen at all though the model still ticks on... The only things changed are the placement of the variables in set up and and not in the body of the code.
I can't figure out why it would randomly have no patients entering the system which makes me mistrusting of anything else it generates. Is this just a formatting style that Netlogo doesn't like? Or am I missing something?
Thanks for any advice/help in solving this one
original code:
if ticks = 1000 [stop]
ask arrivals
[
assess
crowding-check
relocate
]
end
to assess
sprout-patients random-poisson 1.5
[set time_arrived ticks
set condition random-float 1.0
set NEWS2 random-float 7.0
set shape "person"
]
end
to-report AEC_treatment_time ;; gamma dist
let result random-gamma 3.478 0.525
if result < 2 [ report 2 ]
if result > 20 [ report 20]
report result
end
to-report AMU_treatment_time ; gamma dist
let result random-gamma 5.7716 0.3
if result < 4 [ report 4]
if result > 48 [ report 48]
report result
end
new code:
ca
set new-patients random-poisson 1.5
set AEC-los random-gamma 3.478 0.525
set AMU-los random-gamma 5.7716 0.3
reset-ticks
end
to go
if ticks = 1000 [stop]
ask arrivals
[
sprout-patients new-patients
assess
crowding-check
relocate
]
end
to assess
ask patients-here
[set time_arrived ticks
set condition random-float 1.0
set NEWS2 random-float 7.0
set shape "person"
]
end
...
to-report AEC_treatment_time ;; gamma dist
let los-AEC AEC-los
if los-AEC < 2 [ report 2 ]
if los-AEC > 20 [ report 20]
report los-AEC
end
to-report AMU_treatment_time ; gamma dist ;; reports treatment time for patients in AMU
let los-AMU AMU-los
if los-AMU < 4 [ report 4]
if los-AMU > 48 [ report 48]
report los-AMU
end
ps trying multiple iterations, it seems to be the random-poisson change that is the one causing the issues

Answer 1

It's pretty hard to see without the full code as it looks to be a problem with the way procedures connect, but your new structure has ask patients-here (at the start of the assess procedure) inside a loop through ask arrivals (go procedure). Is arrivals a breed?
Generally it is a bad thing to have nested ask turtles type structures because each turtle ask all turtles that satisfy the conditions so you can get subtle errors. Anyway, this will probably get you back to what you were doing before:
to go
if ticks = 1000 [stop]
ask arrivals
[ sprout-patients new-patients [assess]
crowding-check
relocate
]
end
to assess
set time_arrived ticks
set condition random-float 1.0
set NEWS2 random-float 7.0
set shape "person"
end
This structure makes the assess procedure into a procedure that runs from the turtle's perspective (or context) and has it run immediately as the turtle calling it is created.