Modeling a surgical system in a Public Hospital in Chile

Abstract

The little opportunity in the care of patients awaiting surgery causes multiple and serious consequences for them, their family and relatives. Given the complexity of the hospital system, and specifically operating room systems, their current planning has ample space for productivity improvement. This work uses simulation modeling approach to build a valid model of the OR system in the public hospital of Puerto Montt- Chile. To describe the model, activity data from the ORs and waiting lists for the year 2017 is used (near 15,000 interventions, an initial waiting list of 6,500 patients, 15 ORs, 150 surgeons, four daily hourly periods and consideration of weekends] to model the operation of the system using statistical and probability techniques. The model is validated using more than a dozen of performance indicators making it adequate to represent the true dynamics of the system in a simulation study.