Introduction to sibiulation in health care

The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the more challenging issues associated with conducting simulation in healthcare., The current healthcare environment is ripe for the use of simulation. The pressure to control costs is higher than ever, so, there is a critical need for powerful tools which can help clinicians and administrators (our clients) make good decisions on how to achieve objectives of reducing costs while maintaining high quality care. In addition, the highly stochastic nature of disease processes, as well as the complexity of subsystem interactions, makes simulation the decision-support tool of choice for analyzing the organization and delivery of healthcare services. However, for simulation to reach its potential as a major weapon in the fight against spiraling healthcare costs, pragmatic approaches to several challenging technical questions must be offered and discussed. Therefore, this article will present approaches to dealing with the following, frequently encountered tactical issues in simulating healthcare services--degree of model complexity, definitions of input distributions, model validation, and interpretation of findings. The last issue to be discussed is less of a technical concern, and instead addresses the promotion of simulation in healthcare.