title: Abdominal surgery process modeling framework for simulation using spreadsheets.
abstract: We provide a continuation of the existing Activity Table Modeling methodology with a modular spreadsheets simulation. The simulation model developed is comprised of 28 modeling elements for the abdominal surgery cycle process. The simulation of a two-week patient flow in an abdominal clinic with 75 beds demonstrates the applicability of the methodology. The simulation does not include macros, thus programming experience is not essential for replication or upgrading the model. Unlike the existing methods, the proposed solution employs a modular approach for modeling the activities that ensures better readability, the possibility of easily upgrading the model with other activities, and its easy extension and connectives with other similar models. We propose a first-in-first-served approach for simulation of servicing multiple patients. The uncertain time duration of the activities is modeled using the function "rand()". The patients movements from one activity to the next one is tracked with nested "if()" functions, thus allowing easy re-creation of the process without the need of complex programming.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Information Studies, Ulica talcev 3, Novo mesto, Slovenia. Electronic address: biljana.mileva@fis.unm.si.
authors.forename: Biljana Mileva
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Boshkoska
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva ploščad 17, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Talib
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Damij
authors.affiliation: University Medical Centre, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Franc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jelenc
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Information Studies, Ulica talcev 3, Novo mesto, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Nadja
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Damij
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Activity table modeling technique; Business process management; Simulations; Spreadsheets