Simulation of the Queston Physician Network

This paper examines the construction and implementation of a simulation model that supports the design and development of the Queston Physician Network. Queston seeks to partner with health care professionals to provide high quality, cost-effective medical care. Towards this end, a simulation model encompassing both the operations of a Queston clinic and a Queston Information Center has been developed. This model is built in an object-oriented, visual manner utilizing the Visual Simulation Environment (VSE). Application of the object-oriented paradigm (OOP) allows simulation objects in the Queston model to be easily reused. The simulation model incorporates this reusability with traditional modeling and simulation techniques, including for example, the acceptance-rejection method to describe the arrival of walk-in patients to the clinic and the use of thinning to create a nonhomogeneous Poisson process that describes the arrival of incoming phone calls to the Information Center. The Queston model provides a means for risk-free implementation and evaluation of operating policies in both the clinical and telephony environments.