Simulation and Improvement of Patients' Workflow in Heart Clinics during COVID-19 Pandemic Using Timed Coloured Petri Nets.

Masoomeh Zeinalnezhad,Abdoulmohammad Gholamzadeh Chofreh,Emelia Sari,Feybi Ariani Goni,Jiří Jaromír Klemeš

doi:10.3390/ijerph17228577

Abstract

The COVID-19 epidemic has spread across the world within months and creates multiple challenges for healthcare providers. Patients with cardiovascular disease represent a vulnerable population when suffering from COVID-19. Most hospitals have been facing difficulties in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, and there is a need to minimise patient flow time so that staff health is less endangered, and more patients can be treated. This article shows how to use simulation techniques to prepare hospitals for a virus outbreak. The initial simulation of the current processes of the heart clinic first identified the bottlenecks. It confirmed that the current workflow is not optimal for COVID-19 patients; therefore, to reduce waiting time, three optimisation scenarios are proposed. In the best situation, the discrete-event simulation of the second scenario led to a 62.3% reduction in patient waiting time. This is one of the few studies that show how hospitals can use workflow modelling using timed coloured Petri nets to manage healthcare systems in practice. This technique would be valuable in these challenging times as the health of staff, and other patients are at risk from the nosocomial transmission.

Highlights

COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly spread across the world [1]
The simulation results indicate that the average waiting time for each ward is, 120, 44, 30, 0, 22, 0, 0, and 47 min
As coronavirus disease outspreads across the world, hospitals has to prepare for the challenges related to this outbreak

Summary

Introduction

It forced health services to impose instant restrictions on every type of hospital activity, to shield patients and to prepare for emergencies [2]. This circumstance happened mainly in the early phase of the epidemic, where the majority of patients scheduled for examination were informed that they had been postponed indefinitely [2]. The authorities are challenged to develop or keep the health status of their hospitals [3] There is an urgent need to quickly adapt and apply new processes and revise standard care models, technologies, and workflow [3].

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion