Digital Twins for Decision Making: Combining Ambulance and ED Facility Resources

Emergency department (ED) walk-ins and ambulance arrivals are often modelled independently, overlooking their interdependence and the impact of fixed treatment space (TS) capacity. An established discrete event simulation algorithm has been tailored as the basis of a digital twin (DT). Driven by regular streams of incoming ED presentations, patient off-stretcher time (POST), ambulance bay and TS occupation across a 24-hour period contingent on patient flow and ED TS capacity was simulated. The simulation was calibrated using 19,570 ambulance records and data from a 250-bed hospital (2021-2022). Scenarios of five ambulance bays with 43, 38, and 34 TS capacities were investigated, revealing patterns of TS depletion and recovery, including cases where recovery failed within 24 hours, underscoring the sensitivity of patient flow to resource constraints and the value of DT-based simulation for capacity planning.