The effect of technology investments on hospital budget and patient safety: A simulation for emergency department

Abstract

One of the most important problems for hospital management is long waiting times. Especially in Emergency Departments, which are very crowded in terms of the number of applicants, patients wait for a long time without any treatment. Long waiting times between stations affect the total length of stay of the patients in this department. In this case, it directly affects patient safety. Furthermore, patients can leave from hospitals because of not to take effective and rapid treatment or lack of resource. Patient satisfaction is negatively affected and the brand value of these hospitals may decrease. All these events trigger hospital budget also. Hospital managers who faced these problems before, should first review all their existing processes, identify roadmaps and plan improvements. They are able to make use of advanced technologies and make investment decisions for improvement processes. However, investment decisions can be quite costly and can effect of hospital budget economically. Therefore, the use of simulations to compare the results of investment decisions can provide much more accurate decisions. The purpose of this study is to support hospital managers in making decisions by monitoring the impact of investment decisions (technology or resource investment) on the hospital budget. Both investment decisions will be simulated comparatively, patient processes and resource planning will be improved by creating a sustainable management model with RFID Technology.