README.Rmd

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output: github_document
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# DES Patient Pathway

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This patient pathway model is designed to simulate a typical acute hospital outpatient, admission, treatment, and followup pathways.  It uses Discrete Event Simulation (DES) methodology, and is implemented using the open-source {simmer} R package.

It is designed to be used by hospital management and clinicians to investigate service configuration options. It models a single pathway, and is configurable so that users can experiment with "what if" questions.  

It presents results graphically wherever possible (some of this is still in development).

## Model configuration options

The model uses a blend of hard-coded assumtions, and a set of configurable options.  Over time (or by request), options that are currently hard-coded may be made user-configurable.  

#### Examples of configurable items (some are under development):
* Number of weeks to forecast ahead (default is 2 years)
* Patient referral (arrival) rate
* Conversion rate (from OP appointment to admission / treatment waiting list)
* Outpatient appointment followup rate (what proportion of OP appts are new vs. followups)
* Existing service waiting list (backlog size)
* Outpatient clinics:
  - Number of clinics (schedule)
  - OP clinic appointment length
* Pre-operative ward:
  - Number of beds
  - Patient average length-of-stay
* Post-operative ward:
  - Number of beds
  - Patient average length-of-stay
* Operating theatre
  - Operating hours (schedule)
  - Average procedure length
  
#### Examples of currently hard-coded items:

* Distributions (variation) of length-of-stay, and theatre procedure length
* OP clinics and Operating theatres are currently assumed to be the same every day (ie. 7 day service).  The ability to define weekly capacities is planned in due course.  
* Appointment non-attendance (DNA - did not attend) is not currently modelled.  Attendance is assumed to be 100%

## Installation

You can install DESPatientPathway like so:

``` r
# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("ThomUK/DESPatientPathway", build_vignettes = TRUE)
```

## Run the app locally

To run the app on your local machine, use the below:

```{r eval=FALSE}
library("DESPatientPathway")
run_app()
```

or simply:

```{r eval=FALSE}
DESPatientPathway::run_app()
```