A survey of simulation techniques in commerce and defence

Despite the developments in Modelling and Simulation (M&S) tools and techniques over the past years, there has been a gap in the M&S research and practice in healthcare on developing a toolkit to assist the modellers and simulation practitioners with selecting an appropriate set of techniques. This study is a preliminary step towards this goal. This paper presents some results from a systematic literature survey on applications of M&S in the commerce and defence domains that could inspire some improvements in the healthcare. Interim results show that in the commercial sector Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) has been the most widely used technique with System Dynamics (SD) in second place. However in the defence sector, SD has gained relatively more attention. SD has been found quite useful for qualitative and soft factors analysis. From both the surveys it becomes clear that there is a growing trend towards using hybrid M&S approaches

Committed to Safety: Ten Case Studies on Reducing Harm to Patients

Presents case studies of healthcare organizations, clinical teams, and learning collaborations to illustrate successful innovations for improving patient safety nationwide. Includes actions taken, results achieved, lessons learned, and recommendations

Applications of lean thinking: a briefing document

This report has been put together by the Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC) at the University of Salford for the Department of Health. The need for the report grew out of two main simple questions, o Is Lean applicable in sectors other than manufacturing? o Can the service delivery sector learn from the success of lean in manufacturing and realise the benefits of its implementation?The aim of the report is to list together examples of lean thinking as it is evidenced in the public and private service sector. Following a review of various sources a catalogue of evidence is put together in an organised manner which demonstrates that Lean principles and techniques, when applied rigorously and throughout an entire organization/unit, they can have a positive impact on productivity, cost, quality, and timely delivery of services

How Resilient Are Our Societies? Analyses, Models, and Preliminary Results

Traditional social organizations such as those for the management of healthcare and civil defence are the result of designs and realizations that matched well with an operational context considerably different from the one we are experiencing today: A simpler world, characterized by a greater amount of resources to match less users producing lower peaks of requests. The new context reveals all the fragility of our societies: unmanageability is just around the corner unless we do not complement the "old recipes" with smarter forms of social organization. Here we analyze this problem and propose a refinement to our fractal social organizations as a model for resilient cyber-physical societies. Evidence to our claims is provided by simulating our model in terms of multi-agent systems.Comment: Paper submitted for publication in the Proc. of SERENE 2015 (http://serene.disim.univaq.it/2015/

A review of historical developments of quality assessment in industry and healthcare

Purpose: This study reviewed the literature on the historical development of quality assessment methods in industry and in healthcare. A comparative analysis of quality methods in industry and healthcare was conducted to examine the gap between methods in the two sectors. An attempt was then made to examine the latest approaches to quality assessment in healthcare and finally a proposal has been offered for a more effective approach to tackling the problem of quality in healthcare. Design/methodology/approach: Firstly, a review of the evolution of quality assessment in industry and healthcare was conducted. This was based on books written by prominent experts in the field of quality. secondly, a study of the current approaches in healthcare was undertaken. Publications from varied sources were selected and reviewed. The literature consulted includes worldwide operations research and healthcare sources including dissertations, the internet and reference lists of relevant articles. The journal papers and conference proceedings were selected according to the following criteria: Objective: the study must be aimed at measuring or improving quality both. It could also be aimed at developing new ways of measuring the quality of health care; Method: observational studies, experimental trials or systematic reviews; Setting: study should be in a hospital setting and not narrowed to quality of clinical cares. Findings: This study showed that the concept of quality management and its control in healthcare is not as advanced as it is in industry. Moreover, it seemed that most researchers, who set out to assess quality of care in one way or the other, have had differing views of quality and the factors that contribute to its assessment. It was also deduced that the way forward in healthcare quality is the development of systems that give staff ownership and pride in a way that is akin to the era of the craftsmen

Measuring performance in healthcare

Hospitals invest in process management and process optimization from an organizational and patient perspective to increase efficiency and simultaneously the quality of their operations. Consequently, the use of process-oriented performance measurement systems gains importance. This study contributes to the development of a dashboard for the process of hip surgery using a case study design. We integrate strategic goals of hospital management and different stakeholders with the analysis of Business Process Management and Hospital Information Systems’ data. Process-oriented KPIs were integrated into the dashboard using a three-step approach. Dashboards enable healthcare organizations to put process-oriented performance measurement into practice

The drug logistics process: an innovation experience

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the latest innovations in the drug distribution processes of hospital companies, which are currently dealing with high inventory and storage costs and fragmented organizational responsibilities. Design/methodology/approach - The literature review and the in-depth analysis of a case study support the understanding of the unit dose drug distribution system and the subsequent definition of the practical implications for hospital companies. Findings - Starting from the insights offered by the case study, the analysis shows that the unit dose system allows hospitals to improve the patient care quality and reduce costs. Research limitations/implications - The limitations of the research are those related to the theoretical and exploratory nature of the study, but from a practical point of view, the work provides important indications to the management of healthcare companies, which have to innovate their drug distribution systems. Originality/value - This paper analyzes a new and highly topical issue and provides several insights for the competitive development of a fundamental sector

Scott & White Healthcare: Opening Up and Embracing Change to Improve Performance

Offers a case study of a multispeciality system with the attributes of an ideal healthcare delivery system as defined by the Fund. Describes a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration and peer accountability, and a comprehensive approach to care

Upgrading chronic care : exploring challenges in rheumatology care management.

Introduction: The literature on chronic care describes a gap between what patients need and what healthcare provides. In rheumatoid arthritis, major medical advances have taken place in recent years which have made it possible to successfully treat more patients. However, these advances have led to organizational challenges in the man-agement of healthcare delivery. Aim: To explore the challenges in rheumatology care management by studying users’ perceptions of the Feed Forward System (FFS) principles (Study I), simulation model-ing as a tool for chronic care improvement (Study II and Study IV), and a way to test new chronic care processes (Study III). Method: Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to explore the chal-lenges faced by providers and their patients at Swedish rheumatology clinics. Methods include interviews, a focus group discussion, questionnaires, a meta-analysis, and simu-lation modeling. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. Findings: Patients became more involved in and informed about their own care when they used the FFS. Providers said that it offered an overview of past treatments and their effects, as well as support for treatment decisions (Study I). Simulation modeling provided a way to test the effects of moving from time-centric to need-centric processes in rheumatology care (Study III). Simulation modeling was also shown to support healthcare improvement by visualizing the effects of planned changes, communicating these changes to management, and engaging providers to explore and test innovative solutions (Study II and IV). Discussion: Feed Forward Systems and simulation modeling represent an upgrade of how to manage the challenges inherent to rheumatology care. FFS encourage patient empowerment, self-management, and shared decision making, as well as support learn-ing for patients and providers alike. Simulation modeling helps manage complex prob-lems and facilitates learning for providers and managers. This is enabled through the shared features of FFS and simulation modeling: (1) the transformation of data into knowledge, (2) a mutual communication platform for multiple stakeholder involve-ment, (3) provision of real time feedback that enables action in clinical practice, and (4) self-correction that generates learning opportunities. Conclusion: The introduction of FFS and simulation modeling has implications at the clinical level and the patient level of rheumatology care. Upgrading chronic care where it is delivered, at both levels, can contribute to improvements in care management – changing the healthcare system from within

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history