This paper describes a simulation procedure for determining the number of patients that the recovery room must accommodate in a hospital with a given number of operating rooms. The particular case simu- Zated was that of Deaconess Hospital in Saint Louis, which has 505 beds and 5 operating rooms. The statistics on the use of the operating rooms and the recovery room were collected from hospital records and incorporated in the simulation. They take into account the types of surgery performed, the number of patients receiving each type of surgical treatment, the patients' need for the recovery room, and the length of time patients need to stay in the recovery room (a statistical function of the type of surgery).The simulation uses Monte Carlo techniques. Its results closely duplicated the hospital's experience and were accepted by management as the basis for deciding the capacity of the recovery room that would be required after the hospital expanded its facilities. It was found that with 5 operating rooms this hospital required a recovery room with a capacity for 13 patients. The simulation is a general one that can be applied to other hospitals.This paper includes the principal results of the simulation of the operation of the Deaconess Hospital's surgical suite as it affects the number of patients served by the recovery room.