The Flexible Patient Flow Simulation Framework

Hospital congestion and the many associated healthcare delivery cost and quality issues are caused or exacerbated by decisions made without understanding system-level patient flow. Without patient flow models, decisions that affect the entire system are made considering only the effect on a small subsection of the system. This paper presents a flexible simulation framework as a powerful tool for modeling patient flow. Using the Patient Flow Simulation Framework on inpatient admissions, we show that leveraging controls to stabilize workflow through the hospital can mitigate congestion related problems by dramatically reducing variability in hospital occupancy. This yields higher quality delivery at a lower cost.