By Healthcare Facilities Today

Discrete event simulation (DES) has been used for several decades to provide a virtual environment to track and visualize patients, equipment and providers through the care process. According to a blog on the Medical Construction & Design magazine website, it's an important tool in supporting Lean design.

DES can influence the design of workflow and patient flow prior to construction, according to the blog. This virtual DES environment allows architects to test a variety of scenarios with clients to understand the impact that different layouts have on workflow, patient flow and resource utilization. 

According to the article, DES provides three key advantages over other methods of analysis:

1. Real live variability can be applied to a critical key measurement, such as patient demand or wait times for key resources.

2. DES models allow constraints to be included by identifying the interdependencies between resources available and resources required.

3. DES models simulate the passing of time and record key metrics such as wait times, processing times, resource utilization and equipment utilization as they relate to varying patient demand and varying patient acuity.

Read the blog.