A proposed approach for modelling health‐care systems for understanding

Discrete event simulation (DES) application is not as widely perceived as being useful for problem solving in the health‐care arena as in other application areas. Suggests that this might be due to the way DES is applied in health‐care modelling, as it follows a traditionally based‐on‐engineering approach. This may not be a problem in itself; however, health‐care systems are often complex in that they involve multiple decision‐makers and thus understanding and communication between the various stakeholders are potentially problematic. Thinks that problem understanding and efficient communication tools largely contribute to the solution; consequently, proposes a modelling approach to enhance stakeholder understanding and communication. The approach is based on participation of stakeholders; it is also iterative rather than step‐based. To demonstrate this approach, gives an example, aiming to show how this approach has been used successfully to facilitate the understanding process, concluding that involving stakeholders throughout not only helps them to understand their problem better, but also enables them to more fully appreciate the findings resulting from the model. This approach thus serves usefully to enrich the communication between the stakeholders.