Modular Petri net modeling of healthcare systems

Abstract

This paper presents a modular approach for modeling healthcare systems using Petri nets. It is shown that a healthcare system can be constructed by different modules whose inputs and outputs are connected according to their geographical location. Each module can be modeled in two phases: (1) obtain the sequences of treatments and cares received by a patient in the case of a particular disease/condition, and (2) add the resources necessary to perform the previous sequences. The global model is obtained by fusion the inputs and outputs of the modules and by adding information on the patients. The constructed modules together with the resources are Petri nets belonging to a new subclass called healthcare Petri nets that is proved to have equivalent behavior with \(S^4{\textit{PR}}\) nets, a well-known class of Resource Allocation Systems. This allows us to apply the structural results already existing in the literature for \(S^4{\textit{PR}}\) to the context of healthcare systems. In order to illustrate the results, a case study of a public healthcare area in Zaragoza is considered as a use case.