Analysis of patient flow to the Emergency Room at the Hospital Universitario la Samaritana using discrete simulation

Abstract

The next article presents the development of an investigation project focused on the analysis of patients’ flow to the emergency room at Hospital Universitario la Samaritana in Bogotá, Colombia in order to propose strategies that allow raising the level of attention and the use of available resour­ces. First, a discrete simulation model was developed to describe the system and its key variables such as: arrival of patients, length of their stay, delays in attention and required ER staff. Within the context of this project, a methodology of segmentation was developed, based on the days of stay and the patient’s pathologies. After, scenarios and strategies were proposed to reduce the patient’s length of stay in the emergency room.