Rightsizing hospital design with dynamic modelling

As populations grow, construction costs rise, land availability shrinks and the need to reduce carbon footprints intensifies, healthcare infrastructure must adapt to deliver better outcomes at lower costs. Dynamic modelling is an innovative tool that hospital design teams can use to rightsize healthcare facility projects, enhancing functionality and the patient experience without going over budget or missing key milestones – all while meeting operational and community needs.

Dynamic modelling combines people and process modelling to simulate hypothetical solutions in a risk-free environment. It allows healthcare facility operators and developers to visualise and optimise the design and operation of hospital spaces before making costly investments.

With dynamic modelling, we can achieve several critical design goals including: 

• Optimising space utilisation: Every square metre of the facility is used efficiently to deliver high-quality healthcare services. 
• Improving patient flow: More efficient patient movement results in shortened waiting times. 
• Reducing capital expenditure: Data-driven insights lead to rightsizing facilities, reducing construction and operational costs. 
• Enhancing staff efficiency: Staff movements and processes are streamlined to boost productivity and reduce workload. 
• Building for flexibility and resilience: Hospitals are designed to adapt to changing patient volumes, demographics and emergency situations. 

Dynamic modelling works for new builds or updating existing facilities. When designing new hospital facilities, dynamic modelling can be integrated into the architectural design process to test and refine layouts. This involves creating a digital twin environment where expected patient flows, growth scenarios and emergency events are simulated. By measuring throughput times, identifying bottlenecks and analysing underutilised spaces, designers can optimise the structure before construction begins.

The development of the new Leeds General Infirmary, the largest healthcare infrastructure project in the UK, showcases the use of modelling in new hospital builds. The project aimed to combine departments from two existing hospitals into a new high-rise complex. Modelling was used to assess vertical circulation strategies for patients and staff to achieve smooth operations in a high-rise environment. The approach helped understand how waiting areas and consultation rooms could be repurposed to accommodate additional functions, ultimately improving efficiency and patient flow.

Dynamic modelling is equally valuable for optimising existing hospital facilities. By replicating facility operations using real-world data, potential solutions can be tested in a risk-free environment. This approach allows data-driven insights to direct the design towards the most effective course of action, resulting in process improvements all the while avoiding disruptions to daily operations.

It is crucial to model wholistic processes in healthcare facilities rather than focusing on specific sub-stages. Changes introduced in one area can have cascading effects throughout the facility, impacting patient flow, staff efficiency and overall operational performance. For instance, reducing the number of triage rooms might alleviate congestion in one part of the hospital but create bottlenecks in another.

By considering the broader process, dynamic modelling can help create solutions that are holistic without inadvertently creating new problems downstream. This comprehensive approach helps in making informed decisions that enhance the entire system, leading to better patient outcomes and more efficient use of resources.

Dynamic modelling can be applied to various aspects of hospital design and operation, including:

1. Identifying bottlenecks in clinical processes
   Dynamic modelling helps identify and address bottlenecks in clinical processes by testing different design configurations. A hospital operator looking to save space and reduce costs without compromising performance can use dynamic modelling to test the impact of reducing assessment rooms. The simulation might reveal that while reducing assessment rooms increases waiting times in that area, it could also decrease congestion in busier parts of the hospital where it may be more important for patients to get medical attention, such as in triage rooms.
2. Investing for significant patient outcomes 
   Dynamic modelling can guide investment decisions by demonstrating the quantitative benefits of different options. Adding an imaging suite to reduce waiting times can be simulated to show its impact on patient flow and overall system performance. An operator facing bottlenecks in their facility can use dynamic modelling to test the addition of a new scan room. The simulation might show that introducing a new imaging suite significantly reduces waiting times for patients requiring scans, as well as improving flow in other areas.
3. Rightsizing space
   Dynamic modelling can be used to rightsize hospital spaces by testing the implications of different layouts and configurations. This includes determining the optimal size of waiting rooms, reception areas and clinical spaces based on patient flow data. A hospital seeking to adjust its waiting room sizes can use dynamic modelling to simulate patient arrivals and group sizes. The simulation might reveal that the short stay waiting area needs to accommodate six patients comfortably, while the plaster waiting room only needs space for one or two patients.

Dynamic modelling is a powerful tool for rightsizing hospital design, offering a data-driven approach to improve both new builds and existing facilities. By simulating and testing different scenarios in a risk-free environment, dynamic modelling provides valuable information to guide the decision-making process before making big financial investments that may have unexpected outcomes. Healthcare facility operators and developers looking to optimise their hospital designs should consider integrating dynamic modelling into their planning to better tackle the challenges that healthcare projects face now and in the future.