Scenario Generator: Transforming Decision Making in Healthcare

This newsletter focuses on a new product called Scenario Generator that has recently been developed in the UK via a public-private partnership between The Institute for Innovation and Improvement (part of the UK's free 'National Health Service' - NHS) and SIMUL8 Corporation.

Current users of SIMUL8 software will be aware that our core SIMUL8 software products can be used to improve decision making across a variety of industry sectors. Our simulation consultants are available to mould the SIMUL8 technology into a software solution that is tailored to the exact requirements of an organization or indeed an entire industry sector if required.

The Scenario Generator product was developed via the approach described above. Our consultants worked with The Institute for Innovation and Improvement to mould SIMUL8 technology into a solution to fit their needs. Scenario Generator is the first and only simulation software tool available for strategic planning within the Healthcare sector. It enables design and simulation of care pathways within whole health and social care systems.

Background

With increasing pressure to meet performance targets whilst simultaneously maintaining quality of service, recognition is growing within the healthcare sector that quantitative analysis should play a part in decision-making.

Simulating existing and new models of healthcare can help the NHS to anticipate and plan for the impact of changing demands, to design more efficient and effective care pathways and to make more informed strategic decisions about the future of healthcare systems.

So how does Scenario Generator work?

Scenario Generator is powered by the SIMUL8 software but with the objective of expanding who can use simulation, so it’s not just the preserve of simulation experts. To achieve this, Scenario Generator is designed to be easily and quickly configurable and can be tailored by the user without the need for programming.

It comes pre-configured with population and disease prevalence data to enable users to link population needs with health service activity. A number of generic pathways of care are also pre-configured inside the tool. Users can modify all the defaults, change existing pathways or create new ones. The user can experiment with different scenarios and analyse the impact on patient flow, capacity, transaction times (including delays and waits) and most importantly costs. Scenarios are stored and made available in future uses of Scenario Generator to allow comparisons to be made at any point in time.

Scenario Generator has a number of notable differences from our core SIMUL8 technology.

• It has the ability to run a suite of processes in parallel.
• Process capacity (not just resources) can actually be shared between these parallel processes (for example, a diagnostic facility).

The Benefits

Simulating existing and new models of healthcare via Scenario Generator can help the NHS to:

• Anticipate and plan for the impact of changing demands
• To design more efficient and effective care pathways
• To make more informed strategic decisions about the future of the healthcare system.

Lessons learned from users to date, show that the most effective projects using Scenario Generator have occurred via a collaborative approach, where all stakeholders have been involved in the project as part of an overall change programme.

Case Studies

A number of health organisations have already used the Scenario Generator simulation product to aid strategic decision making. Have a look at the case studies below for further details.



East Riding of Yorkshire Primary Care Trust
East Riding of Yorkshire PCT developed a fully implemented falls and osteoporosis pathway using Scenario Generator.  The main objective was to reduce the number of falls resulting in serious injury and ensure effective treatment, rehabilitation and support for those who have fallen.  

Scenario Generator demonstrated the potential benefit of implementing various aspects of the Falls pathway and provided decision makers with an indication of current costs of falls and the likely cost savings as a consequence of the suggested changes.

Skills for Health
Skills for Health were required to develop a 10 year workforce strategy for health.  To do this, they needed to understand the impact of demographic and policy change in the East of England. The work with Scenario Generator formed the basis for consultations on the workforce strategy across the region, contributing significantly to the final strategy.

If you would like to find out more about Scenario Generator then please contact our Lead for Healthcare.
To speak to a Simulation Consultant with regards to how we can tailor a solution to meet your needs please telephone 1-800-547-6024 ( US) or +44 870 850 8886 ( Europe) or email our Sales Team.

Click here for further information on how SIMUL8 has been applied in other areas in healthcare and a a variety of other industry sectors.