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Towards Increased Use of Discrete-Event Simulation for Hospital Resource Planning

2017; Linköping University Electronic Press; Linguagem: Inglês

10.3384/diss.diva-139732

0345-7524

Krisjanis Steins,

Operations Management Techniques

Health care systems in many countries are experiencing a growing demand while their resources remain limited.The discrepancy between demand and capacity creates many problems -long waiting times for treatment, overcrowding in hospital wards, high workload, etc.More efficient delivery of health care services can be achieved by better planning of its resources so that the mismatch between demand and capacity is minimized.Planning health care resources, including hospital resources, is difficult due to system complexity and variability in both resource availability and demand.Discrete-event simulation and other operational research methods can be used for solving planning problems in health care, and have been gaining increased attention from researchers during recent decades.Despite the growing number of academic publications, simulation appears to be less used in health care than in other application areas and only a small proportion of simulation studies is actually implemented.Last but not least, I would like to thank my friends, family, and especially you Agnese -for all your unfailing support during these years!