Managing patient flow and reducing congestion in healthcare facilities: a discrete event simulation approach for maternity service optimisation

Key Points

• To optimize maternity services by managing patient flow and reducing congestion in healthcare facilities.
• Employing discrete event simulation to analyze patient movement and resource allocation.
• Evaluating various scenarios for patient flow improvements.
• Assessing congestion levels in maternity services before and after interventions.
• Significant reduction in patient wait times by 30%, p<0.001.
• Overall capacity utilization improved by 25%, indicating better resource management.
• Increased patient satisfaction scores by 20% post-implementation.