Discrete event simulation case study: Diagnostic path for stroke patients in a stroke unit

Abstract

Hospitals aim at delivering efficient and effective healthcare. This requires high quality medical care, provided by highly trained and motivated professionals. Also the way operations are organized can contribute to a smoother healthcare delivery. An important point here is patient flow and waiting times during the patient trajectory diagnosis-therapy-care. Due to the large variability that exist between patients care needs, even for patients with a similar pathology, predicting the waiting times is very challenging. Traditional analytical optimization models like queuing theory cannot cope with the complexity of the pathways followed by patients and the interrelationships between the resou..