How two management engineers and a simulation software can support the organization of a new surgical pre-admission unit

We report a practical experience in a working hospital. Every surgical operation is preceded by a pre-admission process, destined to analyze patients conditions, which involves many different departments beside the one executing the operation. We started from an organization which provided independent processes for every surgical department, which asked elsewhere for inspections and consulting. A transformation was effected, by designing a new unit which manages a centralized process, utilized by all surgical departments, where all other interested departments, services or units work together in synchrony. That permits to save time and movements of patients inside the hospital, and to reduce total pre-admission times, thus obtaining a better utilization of hospital resources. In order to rule a transformation which required the collaboration of many different groups independently operating before, an accurate design and management control was operated by simulation. After a quantitative analysis of process phases, a new model was built and coded in language Arena. The model evidenced critical aspects suggested useful modifications and adaptations which permitted to get a better working. We think the experience from a specific case may be easily extended to other similar ones.