Hospital preparedness during epidemics using simulation: the case of COVID-19.

This paper presents a discrete event simulation model to support decision-making for the short-term planning of hospital resource needs, especially Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, to cope with outbreaks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Given its purpose as a short-term forecasting tool, the simulation model requires an accurate representation of the current system state and high fidelity in mimicking the system dynamics from that state. The two main components of the simulation model are the stochastic modeling of patient admission and patient flow processes.

A mathematical model for simulating daily bed occupancy in an intensive care unit.

Objectives: To develop a mathematical model for simulating the daily bed occupancy in an intensive care unit.

Design: Data collection and retrospective analysis to develop a mathematical model for simulating daily bed occupancy in an intensive care unit.

Setting: We studied all admissions to the intensive care unit at the Hospital of Navarra over a 9-yr period.