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Patient Transport System Optimization

Patient Transport System Optimization 

September 25, 2025 

 Repositioning Wheelchairs

 

Client: Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago 

Student Team: Maria Silva, Grace Shao, Nico Garcia Ippolito, Murad Gawish 

Key Client Contacts: Tyler Moon; Crystal Cabezas 

Faculty Advisor: Chang-Han Rhee 
 

Overview 
Lurie Children’s asked the team to analyze and improve its internal patient transport system across a 23-floor hospital, moving patients between inpatient units, imaging suites, operating rooms, and discharge areas. The existing process worked, but included pockets of transporter idle time, equipment retrieval delays, and tough dispatch decisions that could extend patient wait times.  

What the team built 
Using over 13,000 historical transport records, the students developed a discrete event simulation in Simio to mirror real world flows and test operational changes safely before implementation. The model incorporates time varying demand, department specific transport classes (wheelchair vs. nonwheelchair), and staffing schedules to evaluate throughput, average transport times, and idle time.  

High level recommendations & results 
Two themes emerged from the simulations: (1) a revised staffing plan that maintains service levels while reducing transporter idle time during off-peak hours; and (2) moving a small set of basic wheelchairs closer to the departments that need them most, cutting average transport times by roughly 8–10% in the scenarios tested.  

Quotes 

“This year’s project brought a very different set of challenges. Maria, Grace, Nico, and Murad stepped up, learned a new simulation tool, Simio, and produced a mode with practical use.” — Tyler Moon, Lurie Children’s 

“I was excited to work with the team and appreciated how quickly they grasped the operational realities. Their simulation gave us strategic insights into flexible staffing and smarter equipment placement—actionable ideas that we can pilot without big capital investments.” — Crystal Cabezas, Lurie Children’s 

For more information about Lurie, see the website. 

Picture with a Patient