Process flows of an emergency department. How process modelling and simulation can help improve the efficiency and quality of patient care

Abstract

Emergency departments are the first point of contact for life-saving care worldwide. Despite this importance in patient care, emergency departments face a number of shortcomings. For example, emergency departments have been struggling for many years with a lack of resources, low levels of digitalization, or unregulated access to emergency departments. Thoughtful process analysis using discrete event simulation (DES) can support the implementation of better processes to improve quality of care sustainably. Based on empirical data obtained through observations, expert interviews, process analysis, and time studies, the authors modelled and simulated the flow of care in a general hospital’s emergency department using a stochastic DES model. The results of the DES study show that digital upgrades and additional staff resources, in particular, can reduce process times in terms of length of stay and waiting times. One can conclude that discrete event simulation is a suitable tool to realistic model and simulate complex systems such as emergency departments, and derive meaningful improvement potentials. In the future, the potential of digitalization concerning process flows should be considered more often in DES studies.