Maass, Kayse Lee

AbstractBackgroundHospitals face the challenge of managing demand for limited computed tomography (CT) resources from multiple patient types while ensuring timely access.MethodsA discrete event simulation model was created to evaluate CT access time for emergency department (ED) patients at a large academic medical center with six unique CT machines that serve unscheduled emergency, semi‐scheduled inpatient, and scheduled outpatient demand. Three operational interventions were tested: adding additional patient transporters, using an alternative creatinine lab, and adding a registered nurse dedicated to monitoring CT patients in the ED.ResultsAll interventions improved access times. Adding one or two transporters improved ED access times by up to 9.8 minutes (Mann‐Whitney (MW) CI: [−11.0,−8.7]) and 10.3 minutes (MW CI [−11.5, −9.2]). The alternative creatinine and RN interventions provided 3‐minute (MW CI: [−4.0, −2.0]) and 8.5‐minute (MW CI: [−9.7, −8.3]) improvements.ConclusionsAdding one transporter provided the greatest combination of reduced delay and ability to implement. The projected simulation improvements have been realized in practice.