Hamid Mohammadi, Shahram Tofighi, Mostafa Rajabi, Hamidreza Izadbakhsh, Bahar Hafezi,
Volume 20, Issue 2 (9-2021)
Abstract
Background: The outlook for hospital care is changing rapidly. Supply and demand stimuli in the health service system are changing dramatically. The health department of the Social Security Administration has also been challenged by the growing number of patients. This study was conducted to help this organization with the aim of designing a conceptual causal model of the interaction between supply and demand of health care.
Materials and Methods: This research is a qualitative study that was conducted in 2020. It presented a conceptual model in two steps in the first step, semi-structured interviews were used to extract important factors in the supply and demand of health services in hospitals. In the second step, the system simulation approach was used and the feedback relationships between the patient's routes to the hospital and the provision of medical services were presented.
Results: According to the study hypothesis, the prevalence of disease and budget allocation as an indicator of medical need and expected medical demand, positively affect the number of visits to hospitals of the Social Security Organization. Accordingly, four sub-models of patient flow, health care budget, treatment staff (physician, nurse) and hospital capacity were extracted.
Conclusion: Medical budgets allocated to hospitals to improve medical facilities and increase the number of staff, have created positive expectations among social security insured regarding the use of hospital services. Paying attention to providing sufficient manpower (doctor, nurse) and bed capacity with the budget which is spent for this service are the indicators of improving the quality of services.
Hamid Mohammadi, Shahram Tofighi, Mostafa Rajabi, Hamidreza Izadbakhsh, Bahar Hafezi,
Volume 21, Issue 1 (5-2022)
Abstract
Background: The use of simulation models can help elucidate the intuitive behavior of complex health care problems. Today, the complexity of problems goes far beyond our capacity to solve them manually. System simulation is considered as a wise option by approaching structural problems and understanding the complex interactions within the problems and their changes. The purpose of this study is to review the most advanced applications of system dynamics in healthcare.
Materials and methods: This study is a systematic selection of articles that explored the applications of system dynamics in health care in 11 databases between 1999 and 2019. The focus of this research was on articles with the keywords including system dynamics in health care, dynamic health care analysis, continuous health care simulation or dynamic health care simulation.
Results: 79 articles related to system dynamics applications in healthcare were identified in databases. Eighty-five percent of the articles focused on finance, politics, government, regulation, public health, and health care planning. Among the articles, the patient's treatment path, obesity and demand for healthcare workforce were examined.
Conclusion: The tendency to use continuous simulation in healthcare has increased. However, the power of hybrid simulation can take advantage of the inherent strength of the system dynamics overview perspective, and in a hybrid model it can utilize a holistic perspective for managing health care systems. Potential areas with the application of systems dynamics in future research include planning and policy-making in public health decision-making, purchasing quality management, care and risk.
