Simulation modeling and analysis of the inpatient surgical department in a university hospital

Abstract

In hospitals, the operating rooms (ORs) are not only the most expensive resource but also the largest source of revenues. However, efficiently scheduling ORs is challenging especially for an inpatient surgical department where complex and long surgeries from different surgical disciplines are often performed in combination with surgeries on emergency patients. Simulation is a potentially useful and flexible approach for addressing such complicated, stochastic and dynamic healthcare systems. This paper aims to develop a versatile decision model that provides an accurate analysis to help the decision-making of the hospital in efficiently planning OR capacity and scheduling surgeries. Based on the data collection from a University hospital, we build a discrete event simulation model for this department that considers many realistic characteristics of the hospital. Model verification and validation are performed and the result confirms that the model could reproduce various performance measures at the hospital. Finally, experiment design and result analysis are conducted to investigate the effect of different capacity and demand scenarios. Our simulation-based approach allows operating room managers to test potential changes in operating room management without disrupting the ongoing workflow.