Managerial Decision Support System for Evaluating the Influence of Nosocomial Infections: A System Dynamics Approach

Abstract

Nosocomial infections, also known as hospital-acquired infections are a significant and serious public health problem which occurs worldwide and affect both resource-poor and developed countries. Nosocomial infections can have major impacts on available resources in hospitals and can greatly impact service time and service cost within hospitals. In this paper, we propose the use of system dynamics to evaluate the influence of nosocomial infections on key performance indicators and to simulate various scenarios regarding the impact of this kind of infections on various resources within the hospital environment.