Opportunities and challenges in health care simulation

Abstract

The delivery of health care is a complex and expensive process that presently is failing to meet the expectations and standards of patients, physicians, administrators and government entities. Simulation tools, both discrete-event simulation and system dynamics, enable managers to better understand the behavior of complex systems and predict their response to changes. After reviewing some successful applications of simulation in health care, this article examines how wellsuited simulation is to analyze health care systems, and explores the reasons why simulation has not been adopted as a routine part of health care systems analysis. Some ideas are presented regarding what can be done to encourage greater use of simulation in health care.