Effects of operational decisions on the diffusion of epidemic disease: A system dynamics modeling of the MERS-CoV outbreak in South Korea.

ABSTRACT: We evaluated the nosocomial outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Coronavirus (CoV) in the Republic of Korea, 2015, from a healthcare operations management perspective. Establishment of healthcare policy in South Korea provides patients' freedom to select and visit multiple hospitals. Current policy enforces hospitals preference for multi-patient rooms to single-patient rooms, to lower financial burden. Existing healthcare systems tragically contributed to 186 MERS outbreak cases, starting from single "index patient" into three generations of secondary infections. By developing a macro-level health system dynamics model, we provide empirical knowledge to examining the case from both operational and financial perspectives. In our simulation, under base infectivity scenario, hi

SUBMITTER: Shin N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7094130 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature