Stakeholder engagement in health care simulation

Abstract

The RIGHT project (Research Into Global Healthcare Tools, http://www.right.org.uk/) is a collaborative project involving five British universities, funded by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Phase 1 of the project is due to be completed in October 2009, and this paper describes one strand of the research, namely identifying some of the issues with involving stakeholders in simulation modeling in healthcare. Not the least of these is actually identifying who the stakeholders are! Other problems identified are equally tricky, as they involve deeply rooted cultural and behavioral attitudes as well as complex organizational relationships. One of the underlying aims of the next phase of RIGHT is to tackle these problems and to develop a methodology for more effective stakeholder engagement with simulation modeling.

Key performance indicators for successful simulation projects

“…Similarly, some others have looked at the subject but within a specific sector. For example, Van Lent et al (2012), Jahangirian et al (2012), Brailsford and Vissers (2011), Eldabi (2009), Brailsford et al (2009), Brailsford (2007), Brailsford (2005), Harper and Pitt (2004) and Lowery et al (1994) have investigated the implementation challenges of simulation projects in the healthcare setting.…”

A participative and facilitative conceptual modelling framework for discrete event simulation studies in healthcare

“…The project This person could be either someone enthusiastic about the study or champion the initiator of the study (Brailsford et al, 2009). He/she serves as a link between the modelling team and the stakeholder team.…”

Is simulation in health different?

“…Brailsford et al (2009) suggest that simulation is an established part of the decision-making process in both manufacturing and the military, while in health there is no such widespread adoption of simulation. They see a key issue being that it is very difficult to identify the stakeholders in a health environment.…”

“…patients, physicians, nurses) whose interactions do not result in the simple production of a final product, 'health'. Harper and Pitt (2004) and Brailsford et al (2009) discuss the complexity that arises from the interconnectivity of healthcare systems and Young et al (2009) point to the scale of healthcare systems as a source of complexity.…”

“…This is posited as one of the reasons why simulation has been less successful in health when compared to other sectors such as manufacturing and military applications (Brailsford et al, 2009;Naseer et al, 2009;Jahangirian et al, 2012). The difficulty for health modelling arises from factors such as complexity, multiple decision makers and busy stakeholders, which all pose particular challenges to simulation modelling in health (Harper and Pitt, 2004;Kuljis et al, 2007;Eldabi, 2009;Brailsford et al, 2009;Brailsford et al, 2013).…”