Application of Risk Management for Discrete Event Simulation Projects in Healthcare Systems

Abstract

Despite the recent developments of discrete event simulation (DES) techniques as well as the growing tendency for employing DES in health care quite often many DES projects still fail to implement successfully. According to several studies, the application of project risk management can reduce the incidence of DES project failure in health care however, far too little attention has been paid to this part. In this study, a risk management framework is provided for DES projects in health care order to reduce the occurrence of failure and increase the chance of success in the DES project. This work investigates both managerial and technical risks and tries to identify, evaluate, and control them by using a set of adopted methods. Emergency department seems to be the most popular area of DES projects in health care The proposed framework is applied to an emergency department that serves more than 23000 patients per year. The results of this investigation indicate that the risk management of the DES project not only provides a proactive approach for project managers to implement successfully but also improves scenario ranking process which is one of the main outputs for principal stakeholders.

Keywords:

• Discrete Event Simulation
• Risk Management
• Healthcare System
• Risk Assessment
• Successful Discrete Event Simulation

EMJ Focus Areas:

• Decision Making & Risk Management
• Operations Management
• Program & Project Management

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Milad Poursoltan

Milad Poursoltan received an MS degree in industrial engineering from Jean Monnet University in 2018. He received the second MS in computer science from Aix-Marseille University in 2019. He is currently pursuing a PhD degree in Cyber-Physical and human systems at the University of Bordeaux. His research interests are related to the development of simulation, Cyber-Human systems, Cyber-Physical systems, Digital Twin, and mass customization.

Malek Masmoudi

Malek Masmoudi is an associate professor and head of the industrial engineering Master at Jean-Monnet University. He received the Doctorate of Sciences (Habilitation) from Jean-Monnet University in 2017. His main research interests are the applications of data science and optimization techniques to various engineering and management fields. He published two springer books in operations research and artificial intelligence in the healthcare domain and more than 20 international journal papers in operations research and industrial engineering.

Pascal Albert

Pascal Albert received his PhD from the University of Nantes (France). Since 1997 he has been at Jean-Monnet university where he is currently a full Professor in mechatronics. His research activities focus on hospital engineering with simulation and operational research. His work concerns more particularly the operating room, medical-social services, organization of home hospitalization, and home care. Currently, his main activity is the organization of the hospital network in France.