Seismic performance of health care facilities using discrete event simulation models

Abstract

The chapter presents a hospital testbed which aims to help the earthquake engineering community moving another step toward the realization and implementation of resilience-based design strategies. An organizational model describing the response of the Hospital Emergency Department (ED) has been implemented using a discrete events simulation model (DES). The waiting time is the main parameter of response and it is used to evaluate the disaster resilience index of healthcare facilities. It has been considered for patients arriving in an Emergency Department after an earthquake, when no emergency plan is activated, to see the response of the hospital and observe its capacity of performing in emergency conditions. The hospital analyzed is the Mauriziano "Umberto I" Hospital, located in downtown Turin, in Italy. The DES model is an important tool in the hospital decision process either for the engineering profession or for the policy maker