We address the issues for modeling problems of obtaining medical resources, such as beds and personnel, on a just-in-time basis for providing patient services in a hospital's emergency department [ED]. Simulation modeling is one approach to solving this type of problem. However, most past ED...

Objective: To develop a discrete event simulation of ED patient flow for the purpose of forecasting near-future operating conditions, and to validate the forecasts using several measures of ED crowding. Methods: We developed a discrete event simulation of patient flow using evidence from the...