A management analysis tool to support healthcare resource planning in public hospitals during the covid-19 pandemic: A case study

New healthcare units called "Covid units" dedicated to the medical care of individuals infected by the Coronavirus disease have been rapidly established under enormous pressure. This reflects the strong commitment of the Tunisian national healthcare system and public action in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. From this perspective, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of these units in providing effective and timely responses to the affected communities. A real Covid-19 unit at the University Hospital SAHLOUL in Sousse, Tunisia is modeled and simulated using ARENA simulation software. The simulation model analyzes the performance of the current healthcare Covid unit by providing relevant statistics on the patient flow and resource utilization rates. The simulation results identify barriers to the efficiency of the Covid care unit and question the relevance of the current distribution of hospital resources during the Covid-19 pandemic. To help healthcare managers evaluate alternative choices and identify potential solutions to optimize critical resources management, "what if" models are executed to address bottlenecks in different stages of Covid service and improve resource allocation. The simulation results of the proposed scenarios demonstrate a significant improvement, reducing the average patient waiting time by 93%, and increasing, in turn, the average daily throughput to 36,51%