Mission

Our team's mission is to improve the throughput of the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) Emergency Department by analyzing the processes used in that ED via simulation. We hope that some of our improvements will be general enough that they can be applied to a wider range of medical facilities, creating a contribution to health-care literature.

Research Questions

• How can we improve emergency department (ED) efficiency and patient throughput?

• What quantifiable factors are most effective in improving ED efficiency?

• What resources should we focus on in terms of management and operations in the ED?

Research Summary

Team HOPE is researching how to improve efficiency in the emergency department (ED) at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). Our research can be broken down in the following way:

1. Determine all processes in the ED and create a process flow diagram
2. Collect the data necessary to make a simulation model for the current ED
   • Database data will be used to establish historical trends
   • Bar code scanners will be used to collect timing data in different parts of the ED
3. Create the simulation model and validate it based on real-world performance of the ED as compared to simulated performance of the ED
4. Brainstorm some solutions to patient-flow problems
5. Modify the simulation model to incorporate solutions and see if improvements can be made to the ED

Thesis

Our team thesis proposal can be found here.

Our team thesis proposal presentation can be found here.