Improving the management of emergencies: the contribution of modeling and flow simulation

Introduction: The increasing demands on hospital emergency services have resulted in longer waiting times and have had an impact on resource use for the treatment of life-threatening conditions. Methods: The purpose of this study was to test and validate different strategies aimed at reducing or minimizing the average length of stay in the emergency department of Ibn Rushd Hospital in Casablanca, Morocco. The paper focuses on patient flow analysis using modeling and simulation. Results: An analysis of the current configuration of the emergency department shows that there are bottlenecks in the hospital's general medical services and in radiology. The average length of stay was 6 hours. To address this issue, a model for an extensive reorganization of the hospital's emergency department was proposed and tested by simulation. The results revealed a 30% reduction in the average length of stay. Discussion: The study shows that the organizational structure of the emergency department has a significant impact on the average length of stay.