A guide for building hospital simulation models

Healthcare systems aspire to offer an effective and efficient provision of health service without compromising on quality. Hospitals are important links in the healthcare service chain, and Operational Research/Management Science methods have an essential role to play in helping to improve the planning and management of hospitals. In particular, simulation methods have been widely used by healthcare researchers and practitioners. This paper is written as a guide for building hospital simulation models and is based on the author's experience and the published literature. Two points of view emerge in this paper supporting each other: a conceptual view and a technical view. Initially, conceptual issues are discussed, including topics such as framing and specification, level of model detail, and data requirements. Second, a technical point of view buttresses the discussion from the methodological side and three simulation methods are evaluated, namely: Discrete Event Simulation, System Dynamics, and Agent-Based Simulation.