Multi-Agent Based Modelling and Simulation for Understanding Tempo-Spatial Patterns of Surgery Wait Times

doi:10.16182/j.issn1004731x.joss.201705007

Abstract

Abstract: In order to characterize the self-organized tempo-spatial patterns of wait times in a healthcare service system, a multi-agent cardiac surgery service model (MA-CSS model) was proposed based on the multi-agent modeling within the context of cardiac surgery services. This model pays a special attention to how patients' and hospitals' behaviors and interactions affect the dynamics and relevant patterns of wait times with respect to some key factors, such as geographic accessibility to services, hospital resourcefulness, and wait times. By experimenting with the MA-CSS model, it was observed that certain regularities in wait times emerged from the simulation, which were similar to those discovered from the real world. It reveals the patients' hospital-selection behaviors, hospitals' service-adjustment behaviors, and their interactions via wait times may account for the self-organized tempo-spatial patterns of wait times in cardiac surgery services.

Key words: healthcare service systems, cardiac surgery, wait times, tempo-spatial patterns, multi-agent modeling

CLC Number:

TP391.9

Tao Li, Luo Liang, Zhang Zili, Lai Hong, Xiao Fuyuan. Multi-Agent Based Modelling and Simulation for Understanding Tempo-Spatial Patterns of Surgery Wait Times[J]. Journal of System Simulation, 2017, 29(5): 979-987.

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