Assessing the efficiency of a public emergency care unit through computer simulation

While emergency care units must be integrated into a healthcare network to increase their effectiveness, to improve their efficiency, operational strategies must be adopted. We developed a simulation model and evaluated patient queues and staffing levels to assess the efficiency of clinical and pediatric care at a public health unit. Our results suggest that the public health unit is efficient, with 80% to 97% utilization of bottleneck resources, but there are resources imbalances. Scenarios indicate that UPA effectiveness level can be increased by 24% if future investment prioritizes hiring, a general practitioner, a screening nurse, and a secretary in this sequence. Conversely, the reduction of any of these three functions has a significant negative impact on system efficiency.