An existing hospital system was struggling with its volume of patients. The predicted increase in volume would push the existing system past its breaking point. A team was tasked with not only designing a new emergency department with the appropriate capacity, but more importantly seeing how various operational changes would affect the new system while investigating clinical trends and the effect on the whole hospital system.
To accomplish this task in an evidence-based way, a simulation model was developed using ExtendSim. This approach helped the clinical, managerial, and facility staff to not just understand their existing department workflow but also to provide them the opportunity to test trans-disciplinary scenarios to guide the design of the new emergency department. Furthermore it provided the client with the statistics to evaluate the impact a new Chest Pain & General Observation Center and Results Waiting Lounge would have on their entire system.