Application of Simulation Technique in Improvement of Intra-hospital Patient Transfer: A Provincial Hospital Center in Northern Thailand

Abstract

Intra-hospital patient transfer is one important aspect of patient care since a delay in transfer can severely affect the patient's treatment. The case study hospital was facing a problem of intra-hospital patient transfer during peak hours (8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) due to the high number of patients and limited number of staff to provide service. The objective of this study was to propose the strategies to improve the intra-hospital patient transfer process in the case study hospital and to apply the simulation technique using the Arena simulation software to evaluate the proposed strategies. This study evidenced that the suggested strategies could help to reduce intra-hospital patient transfer times and increase the number of patient transfer cases of one staff from 15 to 17 cases (11.8%) at transfer center A and from 16 to 17 cases (5.9%) at transfer center B. This study provides contributions to the existing academic literature as it showed how the healthcare system in Thailand was managed as well as how the Arena simulation software is utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of healthcare management strategies.