Modeling and simulation of an outpatient service system

Improving service quality is critically important in hospital environments. Given the unpredictable nature of patient arrivals and types of treatments required, improving the service quality of Outpatient Service System (Accident and Emergency Department) is a major challenge. Hospital managers need to achieve a reasonable balance between patient waiting times and resource configurations. This paper presents the design and development of a simulation model which enable hospital managers to assess the impact of alternative resource configurations. This model demonstrates how sharing of resources across various processes improve service quality. Complexities involved in modeling and simulation of outpatient service systems are also discussed. © 2010 IEEE.