A simulation model for scheduling in the Emergency Room

A need exists for a readily usable tool for different scheduling strategies in an Emergency Room (ER) of a hospital. An ER simulation model incorporating the major activities has been developed. The primary goals of such a tool are to assess the effectiveness of the current system and to improve the emergency room's ability to anticipate the impact of various changes in patient throughput flow. The model allows the evaluation of ‘‘what if?’’ questions through changing the values of the variables and simulating the results. The ER simulation model determines the effects of changes in the scheduling practices, allocation of scarce resources, patient demand patterns, and priority rules for serving patients.