Ventana software support forum

To Andy Mather-

With regard to your inquiry about flow of patients through an Emergency Room
and into inpatient beds, a simulation game developed by Bette Gardner called
Friday Night at the ER, deals with exactly these dynamics. Her address,
according to the SD Society Directory, is 17800 Woodland Avenue, Morgan Hill,
California 95037 USA Ive done a lot of modeling of patient flow in health
care systems (e.g., between primary care providers, specialists, and acute
inpatient care) and created simulation-based learning environments using these
models. I can tell you more about this work if you are interested.

Gary Hirsch
GBHirsch@aol.com

At the London School of Economics we have just completed a piece of work
with a major London Teaching hospital which we will go public on in
January via the LSE Magazine. Additionally, I hope to present a paper at
the 1998 SD conference in Quebec. The details of that paper are shown
here:


> Looking in the wrong place for healthcare improvements:
> A system dynamics study of an accident and emergency department
>
> DC Lane, C Monefeldt and JV Rosenhead
>
> The London School of Economics and Political Science
>
> Accident and Emergency units provide a route for patients seeking
> urgent admission to acute hospitals. Public concern over long waiting
> times for admissions motivated this study, whose aim was to explore
> the factors which contribute to such delays. In collaboration with a
> major London teaching hospital, a system dynamics model of the
> interaction of demand pattern, A&E resource deployment, other hospital
> processes and bed numbers was developed. The paper discusses the
> formulation of this model; the calibration of a Base Case simulation;
> and the outputs of policy analysis runs of the model which vary a
> number of the key parameters. Two significant findings appear to have
> policy implications. One is that while some delays to patients are
> unavoidable, reductions can be achieved by selective augmentation of
> resources within, and relating to, the A&E unit. The second is that
> while reductions in bed numbers increase waiting times for emergency
> admissions, their principal effect is to increase sharply the number
> of cancellations of admissions for elective surgery. This suggests
> that basing A&E policy solely on any single criterion will succeed in
> transferring the effects of a resource deficit to a different patient
> group.
>
> Keywords: Simulation, hospitals, planning, health service, validation,
> systems
>
>
>
> David Lane
From: "Lane,DC" <D.C.Lane@lse.ac.uk>