We were asked to assist our local hospital with the planning for a (relatively) large-scale COVID-19 vaccination clinic. Specifically, they wanted us to look at the proposed layout, operational plans, and staffing and their impact on clinic capacity. In support of this task, we developed a Simio model that we think can be used as a template for this type of clinic. See the AUSim Vaccine Clinic Evaluation, Design, and Setup Project page for more details about the project and other related tools. Here is a quick overview of the current version of the model (the modeling details video is below):
A quick disclaimer here: I know very little about vaccination clinics (and healthcare clinics, in general) – my area of interest and expertise is in simulation modeling so I am a looking for potential collaborators with domain knowledge. If you are have domain knowledge but are not a “simulation person,” have a look at the first few minutes of the video below and you can get a quick overview of this work (the rest of the video focus on model details).
The models use custom objects and data-generated modeling techniques so that much of the model components can be developed directly from data (i.e., fill in some tables in Excel and paste the data into the Simio model). Here is a video of a Zoom meeting where I describe the first version of the model and discuss it’s application and our overall goals with three colleagues interested in healthcare and simulation. I also had a follow-up meeting with Joe Agor where I demonstrated the data-generated modeling techniques in a bit more detail for those of you working with Simio.
The model does not currently have many (any?) useful performance metrics and I’m hoping that some domain experts out there can help in this regard — either by enhancing the model(s) if they know Simio or by telling us what would be useful if they don’t know Simio and working with us to implement those metrics.
Download a zip file with the Simio model and Excel data files shown in the video (Note that the zip file is around 20MB — animated symbols increase the file size significantly). The model was developed in version Simio 12.215.
Updated Model Version
Modeling details for the updated version of the model shown in the Overview video above. This version adds a rudimentary pharmacy module and tracks dosage inventories at the inoculation modules (requiring new InoculationModule objects), and displays some status plots showing dosage and patient information over simulated time. One note – if you are not familiar with using the Processor object, you might want to have a look at video 3 here – https://jsmith.co/educational-modules/learning-simio-lab-series-lsls/lsls-module-12/.
Download a zip file with the second version model. Created in Simio version 12.215. Note that the actual version is 04 (but the video above is still pretty accurate).
If you you find the models and video useful, please leave me a comment below. If you use it to create your own model(s) with new features and want to share, please contact me and we can determine the best way — whether it’s linking to your site, adding it to this site, or something else. Also, if you use the model to help with a real clinic, please share that news also!
Finally, if you are a domain expert and know nothing about simulation but want to help with your domain expertise — contact me at jsmith@auburn.edu and let’s collaborate!