What are the benefits of simulation for hospital design and planning?
Understand the limits of spaces and processes
Whether you are designing a brand new space or redeveloping an old one, you need to know how much your space can really handle. This is particularly true if you face seasonality (such as flu season), need to prepare for surges in demand (such as disaster planning), or anticipate continued organizational growth.
Simulation is the only way to test these scenarios before they happen, and in any of these situations, understanding the true “breaking point” for your space, processes, and staff is critically important.
View the impact on the whole system
Throughout the design and implementation process, you want to see how the proposed design affects not only space, but also staff and equipment needs, anticipated processes, and expected operating costs.
These interdependencies are too complex to model in traditional spreadsheets or even using Lean and Six Sigma. Simulation allows you to see the big picture and understand any downstream effects before a single dollar is spent on construction.
Test every idea to find the best solution
During the design (and especially the redesign) process, there are many ideas about ways to update, improve, and modify the proposed layout. It is nearly impossible to tell which ideas will work, and which will only increase costs or will prove ineffective.
As a result, many good ideas get missed because there is simply no way to know for sure what impacts they would have. However, this issue can be resolved by using simulation. Once a “base model” is built, it allows you to quickly look at every idea in a zero-cost environment. By doing so, you get the best possible design and incorporate a key tenant of lean – getting input from everyone.
