A model of process improvement in the hospital emergency department: solutions according to the logic of System Dynamics

摘要

Of all the areas in which focused change policies Lean type the emergency room of a hospital is the one that has received the most attention. The emergency room, in fact, plays a vital role in providing primary care to patients and is also recognized for the contribution it gives to society. The important results in terms of cost savings and improving the flow due to the reduction of the waiting time of the patients, obtained from major international hospitals, were crucial to assess whether it was possible and useful to implement similar improvements in Italy, certainly not without to many problems in the provision of health services. This paper explores, through simulation techniques based on dynamic logic and continuous (System Dynamics), which can be improvements to make the department more efficient.