Summary
Simulation, as it is typically taught, is a rather mechanical process. Students are taught to follow a recipe: analyze a system, design a model, convert the model to computer code, collect data, verify, validate, and analyze the output. In practice, many analysts find that simulation is an odd combination of art, science, and marketing. Using this technique appropriately, in any industry, involves more than simply following the text book. In our experience, health care provides some rather unique challenges for the modeler. This chapter describes four different practical examples of using simulation to analyze a problem in an acute care hospital. The specific examples are not described in detail, since the applications have appeared in other publications. The emphasis here is to present some of the obstacles that were encountered and the lessons learned.
Chapter PDF
References
Blake, J.T., M.W. Carter, L.L. O’Brien-Pallas, and L. McGillis-Hall (1995). A surgical process management tool. Proceedings of the 8th World Congress on Medical Informatics MEDINFO 95.
Carter, M.W., L.L. O’Brien-Pallas, J.T. Blake, L. McGillis, and S. Zhu (1992). Simulation, scheduling and operating rooms. Proceedings of the 1992 Simulation in Health Care and Social Services Conference, J.G. Anderson, Ed., Simulation Council Inc., San Diego, 28–30.
Blake, J.T., M.W. Carter, and S. Richardson (1996). An evaluation of emergency room wait time issues via computer simulation. INFOR, 34, 263–273.
Ash, J.S., P.N. Gorman, and W.R. Hersh (1998). Physician order entry in U.S. hospitals. Proceedings of the AMIA Annual Symposium, 235–239.
Bates, D.W., L.L. Leape, D.J. Cullen, N. Laird, et al. (1998). Effect of computerized physician order entry and a team intervention on prevention of serious medication errors. Journal of the American Medical Association, 280, 1311–1316.
Wong, C., G. Geiger, Y.D. Derman, C.R. Busby, and M.W. Carter, (2003). Redesigning the medication ordering, dispensing, and administration process in an acute care academic health science centre. Proceedings of the 2003 Winter Simulation Conference, S. Chick, P.J. Sánchez, D. Ferrin, and D.J. Morrice, Eds., New Orleans, LA, 1894–1902.
Derlet, R.W. and J.R. Richards (2000). Overcrowding in the nation’s emergency departments: Complex causes and disturbing effects. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 35, 63–68.
Andrulis, D.P., A. Kellermann, E.A. Hintz, B.B. Hackman, and V.B. Weslowski (1991). Emergency departments and crowding in United States teaching hospitals. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 20, 980–986.
Miro, O., M.T. Antonio, S. Jimenez, A. De Dios, M. Sanchez, and A. Borras (1999). Decreased health care quality associated with emergency department overcrowding. European Journal of Emergency Medicine, 6, 105–107.
Jun, J., S. Jacobson, and J. Swisher (1999). Applications of discrete event simulation in health care clinics. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 50, 109–123.
Siddharthan, K., W.J. Jones, and J.A. Johnson (1996). A priority queueing model to reduce waiting times in emergency care. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 9, 10–16.
Bagust, A., M. Place, and J.W. Posnett (1999). Dynamics of bed use in accommodating emergency admissions: Stochastic simulation model. British Medical Journal, 319, 155–158.
Kumar, A.P. and R. Kapur (1989). Discrete event application-Scheduling staff for the emergency room. Proceedings of the 1989 Winter Simulation Conference, MacNair, E.A., K.J. Musselman, and P. Heidelberger, Eds., IEEE, Washington, DC, 1112–1120.
Rossetti, M.D., G.F. Trzcinski, and S.A. Syverud (1999). Emergency department simulation and the determination of optimal attending physician staffing schedules. Proceedings of the 1999 Winter Simulation Conference. Farrington, P.A., H.B. Nembhard, D.T. Sturrock, and G.W. Evans, Eds., Phoenix, AZ, 1532–1540.
Kirtland, A., J. Lockwood, K. Poisler, L. Stamp, and P. Wolfe (1995). Simulating an emergency department is as much fun as ⋯. Proceedings of the 1995 Winter Simulation Conference, Alexopoulus, C., K. Kang, W.R. Lilegdon, and D. Goldman, Eds., Arlington, VA.
Carter, M.W. (2002). Health care management-Diagnosis: mismanagement of resources. OR/MS Today, April, 26–32.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Carter, M.W., Blake, J.T. (2005). Using Simulation in an Acute-care Hospital: Easier Said Than Done. In: Brandeau, M.L., Sainfort, F., Pierskalla, W.P. (eds) Operations Research and Health Care. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 70. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8066-2_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8066-2_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-7629-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-8066-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive