Modeling of Healthcare Delivery in Sweden

Abstract: A large part of Swedish medical care is expected to be provided from the primary health centers. However, these centers are experiencing challenges in terms of shortages of personnel, an increased volume of patients, higher workload, increasing queue lengths, and increasing costs. Addressing these issues at the primary health centers is important for both improving the operation at the local centers and the functionality of the Swedish healthcare system. This thesis aims to explore the primary health center operation, focusing on a typical public primary health center in Stockholm. This is done to find parameters that affect the flow of patients and develop a graphical model that serves as a foundation for further model development, simulations and optimization of good health. To address the complex and dynamic primary health center system, a system dynamics approach is adopted. A literature review was conducted to gain an understanding of the primary health center environment and to identify parameters that impact the primary health centers ability to operate and/or affect the quality of service towards patients. The model development involved constructing cases and extracting parameters that change over time. The parameter relationships were determined through interpretation and are supported by literature. The model was qualitatively validated with the assistance of expert feedback. The presented result is determined to capture the basic operation of the primary health center and the model can be used as a foundation for further simulations.