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A Literature Review on Validated Simulations of the Surgical Services

  • Systems-Level Quality Improvement
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Abstract

The surgical department is a critical unit that oversees multiple surgical-based clinical pathways and works with various other units in a hospital. This department faces numerous challenges relating to variability in demand and management of resources. The aim of this article is to review the application of validated simulation models on hospital-wide surgical services. Each of these models is broadly classified by (i) simulation method and (ii) level of detail given to the management of “patient pathways” and “staff workflows”. We remark that very few studies have given attention to the management of staff workflows in their validated simulation models.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Science, University of Auckland, 70 Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand

    K. W. Soh, C. Walker & M. O’Sullivan

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  1. K. W. Soh
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  2. C. Walker
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  3. M. O’Sullivan
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Correspondence to K. W. Soh.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Systems-Level Quality Improvement

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Soh, K.W., Walker, C. & O’Sullivan, M. A Literature Review on Validated Simulations of the Surgical Services. J Med Syst 41, 61 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-017-0711-x

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