Entries in Health Care (5)
Tuesday
Oct062009
Surgical Scheduling
Hunter New England Area Health Service
Hunter New England Area Health Service is a large governmental health services organization in New South Wales, Australia. Serving approximately 850,000 people, the HNEAHS includes 3 teriary hospitals, 4 rural referral hospitals, 12 district hospitals and 10 community hospitals. NovaSim, working together with PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia, developed a comprehensive simulation model to help manage surgical block management and overall waitlist management for two of the largest facilities in the region. Used to solve a variety of what-if questions when it was first developed, the model remains in consistent use several years later as an ongoing wait list management tool.
Capacity PlanningThursday
Oct012009
Simulating the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center
Johns Hopkins Medical Institute
The number of chronic disease cases is growing at phenomenal rates as our general population ages. End-stage diseases of all the major organs: heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas ultimately rely on transplantation as the only means remaining to return a patient to reasonable health.
Because of this growth in demand, the line of patients waiting to receive organ transplants is seemingly endless. Aside from the fact that there are not enough organs being donated to meet this need, the transplant community's next biggest problem is having sufficient resources to meet the increasing demand.
Tuesday
Sep292009
Patient Flow Simulation
US Government Department of Indian Health Services
A generalized discrete event simulation tool was utilized for the analysis of client flows in a system of 13 outpatient clinics for the US Government's Indian Health Services (IHS) Organization in Billings, MT. This tool, used by IHS analysts, with support from NovaSim, helped to redesign their client flows in order to better serve client needs.
Tuesday
Sep292009
Emergency Department Simulation
Johns Hopkins Medical Institute
A comprehensive study of three Emergency Departments within the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. This project involved initial process analysis, a large data collection and analysis effort, as well as the development of a discrete event simulation model. Using the first site as a baseline, we developed a generalized tool that was then applied to the final two Emergency Departments in the system. As part of this project, we have had to work with and understand the bed allocation policies in the larger hospital setting.
Tuesday
Sep292009
System Wide Patient Flow Improvement
Vancouver Coastal Health
SUMMARY
As the result of an extensive open bid process, Vancouver Coast Health (VCH) engaged NovaSim to develop a simulation-based analysis tool in support of its large patient flow improvement initiative. The simulation tool analyzes dozens of patient types, hundreds of patient flow pathways and multiple facilities. The project succeeded in providing VCH with a tool to develop effective strategies for: (1) identifying obstacles to smooth patient flow (2) best matching operational capacity (beds) with current and anticipated patient needs (3) improving the patient experience by reducing delays.
