Healthcare System Simulation

Why it’s Vital to Solid Process Design

Many Healthcare areas could really use a performance booster

• Emergency Department Analysis • Healthcare Policy Analysis • Multisite Health System Flow • Quality Control / Patient Safety • First Responder Response • Patient Flow Analysis • Facility Layout Planning • Resource Utilization • Average Length of Stay • Claims Backlog Analysis • Scheduling Analysis

And the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has added urgency…

!So how should hospital and clinic

decision makers best evaluate their current systems and future plans?

What approach should you use?

Consultant

Six Sigma

Benchmarking

Committee

Experts are sometimes great…sometimes, not so much. Always expensive. Often disruptive.

Takes too long and is too risky, especially in a culture not used to detailed analytics, measurement, and constant redesigning.

Can provide useful info, but 90% will not be germane to your situation. Typically only sets goals; leaving you to get there on your own.

Yeah, but after designing the camel what have they done for us lately?

We need a tool or method that:

Helps us develop scientifically-based solutions ourselves, without outside process experts that we have to train about our hospital, policy, or systems.

1

Will be accepted by all our stakeholders, both the technical and the practical. And communicates ideas and results extremely well for management as well as direct contributors.

2

Allows us to test many variations, to run experiments, and to find optimizations… all without undo disruption to our critical operations

3

The Answer is Healthcare System Simulation…

Simulation…… is an easy-to-use analysis tool to visualize current practices and analyze process & policy changes.

… lets you prototype your concepts; in a realistic, cost effective, virtual environment. 

Hospitals are not Factories!

I see patients backing up on line 5. Route the less urgent cases to line 7 to improve patient flow.

Line 7 is down for maintenance. I’ll have the acute care forklift move the patient load to line 8 instead.

But

Guess

What?

Healthcare Systems Simulation has Unique Analysis Requirements

In manufacturing, achieving profitability = reducing process variance.

!But healthcare’s focus is more on

effectiveness than efficiency.

!Healthcare is the only process whose components and

recipients of service contribute as much to its inefficiency as do its members and methods.

!We can demo how Patient Track thinking creates more

effective healthcare models.

FlexSim is built around the “Patient Track” - people are

modeled as people, not boxes.

Complexity and why it matters • Bounded Rationality • Computational Complexity • Multiple dimensions of capacity • Multiple dimensions of quality • Levels of resolution • Variety of Decision Variables

Hospitals are the Soul of Complexity

• Limitless alternatives • Accurate approximation of reality • Blue print + What If + Predictor • Visually compelling • Capable of handling both

qualitative and quantitative factors • Establishes a timeless comparative

base

Simulation Cuts Complexity

FlexSim Offering the most modern, patient-

centric simulation software.

• Specializing in Industrial, Service and Healthcare Operations since 1993 • Dedicated Development & Research, Training and Consulting Offices • Consistently ranked #1 in Client Support and Software Development • www.flexsim.com for a free trial download or call 908-235-3895