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Understanding accident and emergency department performance using simulation

Published: 03 December 2006 Publication History

Abstract

As part of a larger project examining the effect of performance targets on UK hospitals, we present a simulation of an Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department. Performance targets are an important part of the National Health Service (NHS) performance assessment regime in the UK. Pressures on A&Es force the medical staff to take actions meeting these targets with limited resources. We used simulation modelling to help understand the factors affecting this performance. We utilized real data from patient admission system of an A&E and presented some data analysis. Our particular focuses are the multitasking behaviour and experience level of medical staff, both of which affect A&E performance. This performance affects, in turn, the overall performance of the hospital of which it is part.

References

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Bevan R. G. and Hood C. (2006) Have targets improved performance in the English NHS? BMJ. 2006 February 18; 332(7538): 419--422.
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Chisholm C. D., E. K. Collison, D. R. Nelson, W. H. Cordell (2000) Emergency Department Workplace Interruptions: Are Emergency Physicians "Interrupt-driven" and "Multitasking"? Academic Emergency Medicine, November 2000, Volume 7, Number 11, 1239--1243.
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Department of Health (1997) Patient's Charter developing a new charter and changes to the immediate assessment in A&E standard, www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/01/14/32/04011432.pdf {accessed 1 March 2006}.
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Department of Health. (2003) Clinical exceptions to the 4 hour emergency care target. www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/07/95/56/04079556.pdf {accessed 1 April 2005}.
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Elfving J. A., I. D. Tommelein. (2003) Impact of multitasking and merge bias on procurement of complex equipment. Proceedings of the 2003 Winter Simulation Conference. S. Chick, P. J. Sánchez, D. Ferrin, and D. J. Morrice, eds.
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Gibson M., K. N. Jenkings, R. Wilson, I. Purves (2005) Multi-tasking in practice: Coordinated activities in the computer supported doctor-patient consultation. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 74, 425--436.
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  1. Understanding accident and emergency department performance using simulation

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      Published In

      cover image ACM Conferences
      WSC '06: Proceedings of the 38th conference on Winter simulation
      December 2006
      2429 pages
      ISBN:1424405017

      Sponsors

      • IIE: Institute of Industrial Engineers
      • ASA: American Statistical Association
      • IEICE ESS: Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Engineering Sciences Society
      • IEEE-CS\DATC: The IEEE Computer Society
      • SIGSIM: ACM Special Interest Group on Simulation and Modeling
      • NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology
      • (SCS): The Society for Modeling and Simulation International
      • INFORMS-CS: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences-College on Simulation

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      Winter Simulation Conference

      Publication History

      Published: 03 December 2006

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      WSC06
      Sponsor:
      • IIE
      • ASA
      • IEICE ESS
      • IEEE-CS\DATC
      • SIGSIM
      • NIST
      • (SCS)
      • INFORMS-CS
      WSC06: Winter Simulation Conference 2006
      December 3 - 6, 2006
      California, Monterey

      Acceptance Rates

      WSC '06 Paper Acceptance Rate 177 of 252 submissions, 70%;
      Overall Acceptance Rate 3,413 of 5,075 submissions, 67%

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      • (2015)A comprehensive review of emergency department simulation applications for normal and disaster conditionsComputers and Industrial Engineering10.1016/j.cie.2015.02.01883:C(327-344)Online publication date: 1-May-2015
      • (2014)Patient flow modelling and performance analysis of healthcare delivery processes in hospitalsComputers and Industrial Engineering10.1016/j.cie.2014.04.01678:C(299-312)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2014
      • (2013)Improving patient length-of-stay in emergency department through dynamic queue managementProceedings of the 2013 Winter Simulation Conference: Simulation: Making Decisions in a Complex World10.5555/2675983.2676277(2362-2373)Online publication date: 8-Dec-2013
      • (2013)Modeling Throughput of Emergency Departments via Time SeriesACM Transactions on Management Information Systems10.1145/25441054:4(1-16)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2013
      • (2012)A simulation-based decision support system to model complex demand driven healthcare facilitiesProceedings of the Winter Simulation Conference10.5555/2429759.2429878(1-12)Online publication date: 9-Dec-2012
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      • (2011)DGHPSIM:ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation10.1145/2000494.200049621:4(1-22)Online publication date: 2-Sep-2011
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