Addressing the Allocation of Medical Examination Resources Using Simulation

The allocation of medical examination resources plays a critical role in hospital operations. Inefficient allocation can lead to delays in treatments and extend patient stays, affecting bed availability. The examination resources are allocated to inpatients and outpatients, but it must strike a balance. Prioritizing either inpatients or outpatients may disproportionately affect the other, leading to delays and reduced patient satisfaction. This study is motivated by a medical examination resource allocation problem in a general hospital. Currently, hospital managers rely on experience-based methods for resource allocation. However, long patient waiting times suggest that the intuitively determined allocation is not optimal. Determining the optimal allocation strategies in real-world hospital operations is difficult due to uncertain demand and unpredictable long-term factors. This study develops a simulation program to help determine an appropriate proportion of an examination team allocated to inpatients and outpatients. It integrates medical examinations, hospitalization, and surgery and has a user-friendly interface. Experiments based on both virtual scenario and real-world case are conducted. It is shown that the simulation program can help hospital managers systematically evaluate different allocation strategies before implementation.