Using simulation in hospital planning

Abstract

A perplexing problem today in many hospital clinics is how to manage patient flow effectively. An example of poor management was found in the family planning clinic of a large Southeastern hospital. Employee workloads and patient service times both varied greatly, with periods of overwork and over crowding followed by periods of virtual inactivity. The hospital administrators wanted to correct the problem without disrupting personnel or patients and without spending money on capital improvements. (The entire clinic was soon to be relocated.) A computer model was developed to study how changes in staffing policies would affect the observed bottle necks. Current operating procedures along with seven alternatives were examined. Simulation allowed the study of these approaches without large capital expenditures or disturbances in normal operations. This study not only shows the solution to a particular problem in patient flow but also shows how sophisticat ed analytical techniques can be used in the rapidly expanding health delivery field.