The threat of pandemic disaster has motivated many collaborative exercises for the purpose of preparation and evaluation. The nature of these exercises depends upon the status of pre-existing expectations for system behavior and the aims of the exercise stakeholders. The contents of this article argue that these exercises may be developed using the same approach as simulation modeling to advantage. Four levels of maturity are outlined as a guide to understanding reasonable expectations for such activity.
This analysis contributes to an understanding of the effects of PGD on time and cognitive burdens of physicians, staff, and physical resources. It illustrates the usefulness of DEM simulation for the purpose. Avoidable consequences are exposed quantifiably for both the patient and the clinic. More realistic ways to respond to PGD impact are needed.
Health care delivery systems of all kinds must operate under resource constraints. This gives rise to design issues that are best addressed by engineering methods such as simulation modeling and analysis. A simulator to help deal with veterinary practice design, planning, and operation issues has been developed. An expert system for processing patient appointments was integrated with traditional process world view modeling capabilities to produce the simulator. Simulator input variables and performance measures are described. An example application in practice operation and design, including extensive statistical analysis, is presented.
Faced with the opportunity to significantly deviate from classic operations, a new emergency department (ED) and novel strategy for patient care delivery were simultaneously initiated with the aid of model-based simulation. To answer the design and implementation questions, a traditional strategy for construction of discrete-eventmodel simulation was employed to define ED operations for a newly constructed facility in terms of workflow, variables, resources, structure, process logic and associated assumptions. Benefits were achieved before, during and after implementation of an unprecedented operations strategy-i.e., the organization of the ED care delivery around four care streams: Critical, Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Fast Track. Prior to opening, it shed light on the range of context variables where benefits might be anticipated, and it facilitated staff understanding and judgements of performance. Two years after opening, the operations data is compared to the simulation with encouraging results that shed light on where to continue pursuit of improvement.
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