Improving the Qaulity of Patient Care in an Emergency Department Through Modeling and Simulation of its Process

Maximizing the effectiveness of a process such as in an emergency department while minimizing the cost of the resources needed to do so requires complex analysis. The unpredictable nature of these types of processes makes such a task even more difficult Primary methods to improve critical metrics such as length of stay include reducing the time needed to perform individual tasks, reorganizing the process to eliminate unneeded tasks, or improving resource allocations to reduce wait times. All of these steps first require an intimate understanding of the process as it currently operates. This alone can be difficult without the proper tools to precisely and intuitively capture all aspects of the process. However, once an understanding of the process is achieved, deciding what steps to take to impact performance metrics is even more challenging. A manager may attempt to implement certain changes on a trial basis, but this often proves costly in both time and staff confidence. Furthermore, many times these types of decisions must be made in response to rapidly changing conditions. An unexpected surge in patient

arrivals or acuity levels may require a rapid reassignment of resources to different areas within the department. Without the proper tools for analysis and real-time situation awareness, methods for process improvement are ad-hoc at best.