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Work pressure and burnout effects on emergency room operations: a system dynamics simulation approach

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Abstract

This study develops a simulation model that can describe the accurate working environment of emergency room by analyzing the effects of both work pressure and burnout. For this purpose, we consider burnout as a critical factor that plays a role in running an emergency room efficiently and as a cause for unexpected outcomes. As work pressure intensifies, the productivity of human resources tends to increase accordingly. However, when work schedule intensity reaches a certain level, service productivity of human resources can start decreasing due to accumulated fatigue. We consider the burnout phenomenon and demonstrate the existence of several such factors in emergency room environments through systems dynamics simulation model by comparing them with the actual emergency room data from a major hospital in South Korea. Also, we conducted trend analysis to present the behavioral characteristics of the burnout.

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Acknowledgements

We are very thankful to the editor and reviewers whose constructive comments significantly improved this paper. This work was supported by 2016 Research Fund of Myongji University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Supply Chain Management, Korea Aerospace University, Seoul, South Korea

    Donghyun Choi

  2. Department of Business Administration, Myongji University, Seoul, South Korea

    Yonghwi Noh

  3. Department of International Business Administration, Dankook University, Yongin, South Korea

    Jin Sung Rha

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  1. Donghyun Choi
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Correspondence to Yonghwi Noh.

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Choi, D., Noh, Y. & Rha, J.S. Work pressure and burnout effects on emergency room operations: a system dynamics simulation approach. Serv Bus 13, 433–456 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-018-00390-1

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