Simulation modeling to assess performance of integrated healthcare systems: Literature review to characterize the field and visual aid to guide model selection

BACKGROUND: The guiding principle of many health care reforms is to overcome fragmentation of service delivery and work towards integrated healthcare systems. Even though the value of integration is well recognized, capturing its drivers and its impact as part of health system performance assessment is challenging. The main reason is that current assessment tools only insufficiently capture the complexity of integrated systems, resulting in poor impact estimations of the actions taken towards the ‘Triple Aim’. We describe the unique nature of simulation modeling to consider key health reform aspects: system complexity, optimization of actions, and long-term assessments. RESEARCH QUESTION: How can the use and uptake of simulation models be characterized in the field of performance assessment of integrated healthcare systems? METHODS: A systematic search was conducted between 2000 and 2018, in 5 academic databases (ACM D. Library, CINAHL, IEEE Xplore, PubMed, Web of Science) complemented with grey literature from Google Scholar. Studies using simulation models with system thinking to assess system performance in topics relevant to integrated healthcare were selected for revision. RESULTS: After screening 2274 articles, 30 were selected for analysis. Five modeling techniques were characterized, across four application areas in healthcare. Complexity was defined in nine aspects, embedded distinctively in each modeling technique. ‘What if?’ & ‘How to?’ scenarios were identified as methods for system optimization. The mean time frame for performance assessments was 18 years. CONCLUSIONS: Simulation models can evaluate system performance emphasizing the complex relations between components, understanding the system’s adaptability to change in short or long-term assessments. These advantages position them as a useful tool for complementing performance assessment of integrated healthcare systems in their pursuit of the ‘Triple Aim’. Besides literacy in modeling techniques, accurate model selection is facilitated after identification and prioritization of the complexities that rule system performance. For this purpose, a tool for selecting the most appropriate simulation modeling techniques was developed.