Preview

Simulation Model for Emergency Department

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3817 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Simulation Model for Emergency Department
SIMULATION MODEL FOR EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT

ABSTRACT

The paper presents a comprehensive research study on the Simulation Model for Emergency Department. The study was conducted in the Emergency Department (ED) at The Ohio State Medical Center. A simulation model was developed using Arena (7.0) to model the process flow of patients in order to analyze the ED System performance. A Statistical Design of Experiments study was performed to study the significance/ non significance levels in order to improve ED performance.

Key Words: Emergency Department, Simulation, Work Flow.

1 - INTRODUCTION

The Emergency Department (ED) at Ohio State Medical Center specializes in the treatment of critically ill and seriously injured patients and possess a comprehensive array of the most up to date diagnostic and treatment services coupled with a highly trained and experienced health care staff. It was observed that the overall time patients spent in the Emergency Department of the hospital was significantly higher (500 minutes) than the benchmarked time for the patient length of stay (LOS). This has an adverse impact on patient throughput in the ED. If the patient length of stay in the ED is high, then the waiting times for new incoming patients in the ED is high and the in-process patient volumes who have received partial medical service in the ED is also high. These factors contribute to a significant decline in the ED system performance.

The objective of our research study was to analyze and evaluate ED system performance. The research study was conducted in several phases. The first phase involved construction of a detailed flow chart of the “As Is” ED system. This enabled us to understand the work flow of patients, physicians and nurses in the ED system. The second phase involved construction of a detailed simulation model using Arena (7.0). The simulation model calculates the performance evaluation measures such as total patient length

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    NUR 6050 ACA Paper

    • 761 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Accepting admissions into the observation unit from the emergency department created a situation where the patient health conditions varied considerably. Admissions included orthopedic, medical-surgical, gynecological, and…

    • 761 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    EHR Case Study Essay

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Electronic health records (EHR) are being applied in healthcare systems for the dual purpose of improving healthcare quality and decreasing operating costs. More than 50% of doctors and other eligible providers have received Medicare or Medicaid incentive payments for implementation of EHRs and over 80% of hospitals successfully incorporated the EHR by the end of 2013 thus getting incentive payments (Business Wire, 2013). Emergency departments are faced with problems such as overcrowding, job stress, skeleton crews and work flow interruptions. The main concern for introducing the EHR is if it will improve…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hcs/483 It Failures

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “The time and resources needed to implement a new health care information system can vary considerably based on the scope of the project, the needs and complexity of the organization, the number of applications being installed, and the number of user groups involved.” (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). The first part in implementing a system is to first assign a team of professionals within the organization. The responsibility and role of the team would be to plan, coordinate, budget, and manage the new system set up. The team should determine what the objectives and goals of the new system should be. After this the next step is to develop and implement the process. Some major steps should include how long each activity should take, resources and budget, and ways to alleviate completion and success. Components of an implementation plan are workflow and analysis, system installation, staff training, conversion, communication, and a go-live date. The size and needs of an organization is what determines the type of system that will be needed.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mis 330

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages

    We gathered our information from a study conducted through surveys, and direct observation at INOVA hospital. INOVA hospital currently uses electronic medical record (EMR) system, however it is a first generation system, and lacks an integrated system through the hospital. Our findings showed this occurred because of early adoption of this technology and lack of planning when implementing the old system. In the old system, the departments are not connected to a central database. This creates the need to print medical records for transfer between departments, which causes errors, slow response time, increased cost, longer wait time, and redundancy of data.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    It is no secret that the wait times and length of stay for patient’s within the Emergency Department (ED) has steadily increased over the past several years. With that, comes adverse events affecting all patients alike. According to Weston (2013), “Falls and delays to treatment are the major contributors to serious and sentinel events” (pg. 33). Data collection has now been utilized to capture these delays in hopes of finding cause and solutions. This paper will take us step-by-step through the triage process and data collection which is aimed at decreasing delay times and improving patient satisfaction.…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Week 1 Memo

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The present memo describes the current state and design of a healthcare organization for providing strategic inputs to improve organization performance in treatment of patients and operational efficiency of medical process.…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some of the advantages of the electronic health record are to automatically share patient data between different organizations and facilities. It will access multiple transmissions of patient record and improve the quality of patient care and safety. EHR provides a computer program application for decision support systems and multipurpose functioning using an integrated analytic process. The healthcare workers benefit from using this evidence based system. There is disadvantage to EHR system it decrease productivity because it time consuming entering data into the database. Another potential disadvantage is the start up cost which can be expensive. It can be also challenging because most healthcare organization works on a budget and if there no additional revenue available makes it difficult.…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    History of Ems

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages

    History of EMS EMSP 1338-Introduction to Advanced Practice Central Texas College December 5 2010 History of EMS Abstract The history of emergency medicine dates back many centuries. As the years pass EMS not only progressed in prehospital care, but in the way patients are transported to the hospital in emergeny situations. Along with the progression of the transportation and prehospital care of patients, the EMS profession has come a long way in its regulations too.…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    comp 1 final project

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Emergency rooms are set up in triages and the most critical patients are first. Lots of people think that it will go first comes first served. The average person spends about three…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Urgent Care Research Paper

    • 1648 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Urgent care is pushing the boundaries of the quality of care that can be provided in an urgent care facility. According to the American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine (2014), “Since 2008, the number of facilities has increased from 8,000 to 9,300. The public’s desire for immediate access to medical care has been the driving force behind this monumental growth” (AAUCM, 2014). Urgent care facilities have begun volunteering to become accredited organizations, meaning that they will now be held to the highest standards of quality. This will now assure that the care being provided to patients in an urgent care facility will match the care one would receive in an emergency room. The increase in urgent care facilities becoming accredited greatly enhances the attraction for some of the best providers. This brings in highly qualified physicians who have a strong drive to practice medicine in an urgent care setting. Meaning not only do patients get access to highly trained physicians and an accredited care facility; they also have the availability of that facility on nights, weekends, and holidays. The increase in accessibility benefits the urgent care facility. More often than not when a patient shows up to an urgent care facility their wait will be under an hour, and they will be able to see an actual physician. As urgent care medicine continues to progress in the health care…

    • 1648 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    ED Boarding

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Unstable patients have the priority to ED rooms. Typically, this means less critical boarded patients are often placed in hallways to make more ED rooms available for patients while they wait for admission to an inpatient unit. This setting subjects boarded patients to a disruptive and unpredictable environment. There are also inherent structural differences between the care provided to boarded patients compared to the care in inpatient units. First, emergency physicians (EPs) and nurses lack the proper skill set to manage boarded patients. Care in the ED focuses more on stabilization, disposition, and preliminary diagnosis than on inpatient observation and management (Hockberger, et al., 2005). Second, new patients act as a distraction and are higher priority for ED staff compared to boarded patients. This level of distraction increases potentially dangerous handoffs between EPs as compared to an inpatient service setting. According to the Institute of Medicine’s safety publication, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, emergency departments (EDs) are susceptible to “high error rates with serious consequences” (Havens & Boroughs, 2006). These structural differences may explain why boarded patients could experience compromised quality of…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Our theoretical model suggests that the length of stay for patients with critical illnesses are much more improved at teaching hospitals than in non-teaching hospitals. This metric is typically reported as an average since it assumes that all patients are equally ill. As a matter of fact, every patient is unique and may require specialized or advanced care and surgeries. The ability to predict length of stay can substantially improve a teaching hospital's capacity utilization, while ensuring that resources are available to meet the health care needs of the community (Omachonu VK) . Undoubtedly, teaching hospitals outrival the competition when it comes to treating the most critical patients. As healthcare costs increase each year, hospital officials and policymakers are highly motivated to search for ways to increase patient care and efficiency while continuing to find new innovative initiatives to keep costs…

    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The emergency department may experience the most diverse events. Reaction from staff must be prompt and with continuity of the team. The ER staffs have the necessary certificates to obtain employment. Management creates teams who connect with each other. Due to the extreme risk of the ER department, “…teamwork is a critical component of a safe health care system.” (Weaver, Salas, Lyons, Lazzara, Rosen, Diaz, Granados, Grim, Augenstein, Birnbach, & King p369, 2010). Excess errors in immediate treatment, for example trauma, will destroy the trust in the community. Avoidance of persons needing treatment will bring financial disaster to the entire facility. Litigation will increase bringing the facility to bankruptcy.…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Leadership Vision

    • 1180 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What is an organization without a vision? The vision objective puts the organizations values and goals into simplified terms every member of the team can understand and share. The same holds true for our own personal goals and aspirations. We should develop our own personal vision statements to ensure we are staying current in the growing changes of nursing and healthcare technology/techniques, to educate and lead in the most efficient means possible. My vision revolves around the mission statement, “To provide the highest level of care, one patient at a time, with meticulous attention to quality of care; serving with compassion and a dedication to improving health awareness and literacy among patients”. While simple and direct, I feel that this statement best summarizes my leadership vision for the future of nursing and institutional healthcare.…

    • 1180 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays