Computer simulation of hospital patient scheduling systems.

A method of analyzing alternative systems of scheduling hospital admissions by means of a computer simulation is described. The simulation is divided into three programs, dealing sequentially with requests for admission, scheduling, and evaluation of costs of three basic scheduling systems and using the output of each phase of the simulation as input to the following phase. The feasibility of using the scheduling program in a real-time automated patient-scheduling system is discussed, with indications of adaptations required and additional functions that could be handled by the system.