Discrete event simulation for problem solving in the context of an emergency department

Emergency departments (ED) are responsible for the immediate care and stabilization of patients in critical health conditions. Several factors have caused overcrowding in the emergency care system, but the variability of patient arrival and the triage process requires special attention. The critical...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ferreira, Letícia Ali Figueiredo, Santos, Igor Leão dos, Santos, Ana Carla de Souza Gomes dos, Reis, Augusto da Cunha
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:Brasil
Institución:Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo (IFSP)
Repositorio:Independent Journal of Management & Production
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:www.ijmp.jor.br:article/1286
Acceso en línea:http://www.ijmp.jor.br/index.php/ijmp/article/view/1286
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Emergency Department
Discrete Event Simulation
Brazil
Descripción
Sumario:Emergency departments (ED) are responsible for the immediate care and stabilization of patients in critical health conditions. Several factors have caused overcrowding in the emergency care system, but the variability of patient arrival and the triage process requires special attention. The criticality of these components and their configuration directly impact the waiting times, length of stay and quality of service, being the subject of several studies. So, this paper aims to understand by means of Discrete Event Simulation how ED works with the variation of patient arrival and how this variation highlights the bottlenecks of the triage process. Varying the patient arriving interval between 0.1 and 7.6 in a 4-hour scenario,  the system saturation point was established in β = 1.1. Besides, with the variation in the number of triages points, a considerable decrease in the total length of stay spent and the waiting times were noticed, mainly when there was two triage points operating simultaneously.