Treating ailing emergency departments with simulation: An integrated perspective

Brailsford, S.C., Churilov, L. and Liew, S-K (2003) Treating ailing emergency departments with simulation: An integrated perspective. In, Anderson, J. and Katz, E. (eds.) Health Sciences Simulation 2003. San Diego, USA. Society for Modeling and Computer Simulation, pp. 25-30.

Abstract

The same problems occur, and receive press attention, in hospital Emergency Departments all over the world. Patient waiting times are increasing. It is difficult to find the right mix of senior and specialist staff at the right time. There is a lack of effective early warning systems to give nearby hospitals time to gear up for flow-on emergency presentations to avoid the "domino effect".
In this paper we present a comparative analysis of both Discrete-Event Simulation and System Dynamics approaches to Emergency Department (ED) planning and management. It is emphasized that as the relative strengths and limitations of both approaches are, in fact, complementary, there is much to be gained by integrating these two approaches into a unified framework. We argue that the integrated simulation models can not only assist in dealing with internal efficiency issues within the ED walls, but also can provide better understanding of system-wide factors beyond the immediate control of the ED manager. The argument is illustrated by simulation case studies of EDs in the UK and Australia.

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Contributors

Author: S.C. Brailsford

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