Simulation of a hospital′s theatre suite

Abstract

Describes a study of six operating theatres in a modern hospital where management was concerned about the throughput of the system. Senior medical staff were of the opinion that insufficient recovery spaces had been provided when the suite of theatres had been built which, if correct, was a physical constraint requiring considerable financial investment to remedy. They also thought that shortage of porters (“You can never find a porter when you need one!”) and recovery nurses were current operational problems. The relationship issues encountered when interfacing with the staff involved, the collection and analyses of relevant data and the building of a visual interactive simulation model are described.