Entries in Human Services Delivery (7)
Monday
Nov082010
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
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The Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC (CHP) had a unique and once-in-a-career problem; how to move 152 children the two and a half miles to its new state-of-the-art facility in a single day, without sacrificing patient safety and without breaking the budget. This was not just a simple matter of shuttling ambulances back and forth. While the problem is simple to describe, there were deceptively complex logistical challenges to address, including the coordination of over 250 staff members, 35 ambulances and scores of specialized, shared pieces of medical equipment. Even elevators had to be considered in the final analysis.
Human Services DeliveryTuesday
Oct062009
Pharmaceutical Order Processing
Caremark PCS (Formerly Advanced PCS)
The pharmacy benefits group for Caremark looked to simulation to help improve customer service and reduce turnaround time on prescription orders.
Orders arrive to the central processing location in Scottsdale, AZ via telephone, fax, internet, and mail. Each order can then proceed through one of hundreds of possible paths depending on the type of order, the source, if it is a refill or new prescription, and other random factors. Each path will contain anywhere from 4 to15 steps. At each step the order must be processed, and delays may occur.
The sheer volume and complexity of the orders made capacity planning and staffing very difficult. Simulation has helped reduce order turnaround time, improve staff utilization, and reduce costs.
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.
Tuesday
Sep292009
Homeless Services Bed Capacity Simulation
New York City Department of Homeless Services
New York City’s Department of Homeless Services is subject to a ‘Right to Shelter Law’. Simply put, this means that anyone who presents themselves to a shelter must be given a bed. NovaSim developed a simulation model that allows NYC DHS to plan its bed capacity, so that they can be sure to match the highly variable, seasonable demand for shelter.
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.
