New Perspectives for Workflow Analysis in the Health Italian Sector through Discrete Event Simulation: The Case of a Department of Laboratory Medicine
- 1 Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies, University Federico II, Naples, Italy
- 2 Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Productions, University Federico II, Naples, Italy
- 3 Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies, University Federico II, Naples, Italy
- 4 Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies, University Federico II, Naples, Italy
Abstract
The management systems currently used in the Italian healthcare sector provide fragmented and incomplete information on this system and are generally unlikely to give accurate information on the performances of the healthcare processes. The present paper introduces a combined discrete event simulation (DES)/business process management (BPM) approach as innovative means to study the workflow of the activities within the Department of Laboratory Medicine of the “San Paolo” Hospital in Naples (Italy). After a first “As-Is” analysis to identify the current workflows of the system and to gather information regarding its behaviour, a following DES-based “What-If” analysis is implemented to figure out alternative work hypotheses in order to highlight possible modifications to the system’s response under varying operating conditions and improve its overall performances. The structure of the simulation program is explained and the results of the scenario analysis are discussed. The paper starts with a brief exploration of the use of DES in healthcare and ends with general observations on the subject.
- Tamburis, O., Ricci, F.L. and Pecoraro, F. (2014) A Mathematical Model to Plan the Adoption of HER Systems. In: Wang, J., Ed., EBAO—Encyclopedia of Business Analytics and Optimization, IGI-Global, Hershey, 14-29.
- Torri, A. and Pepino, A. (2013) Use of New Management Techniques in the Italian Health Care System. Scholars Journal of Engineering and Technology, 1, 195-197.
- Tähkäpää, J. (2004) Increasing Role of Information Systems in Public Health Care—Challenge to the Management. Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, 5-8 January 2004.
- Torri, A., Pepino, A., Rovani, M. and De Luca, N. (2014) Use of DES for the Quantitative Analysis of the Workflow of the Hypertension Center at the “Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Federico II” of Naples. International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering, 6, 220-226. http://dx.doi.org/10.7763/IJCTE.2014.V6.866
- Wang, B., McKay, K., Jewer, J. and Sharma, A. (2013) Physician Shift Behavior and Its Impact on Service Performances in an Emergency Department. Proceedings of the 2013 Winter Simulation Conference, Washington DC, 8-11 December 2013, 2350-2361. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/WSC.2013.6721610
- Torri, A., Rovani, M., Abbate, T. and Pepino, A. (2013) Performance Evaluation in a Department of Laboratory Medicine. Proceedings of the 2013 Winter Simulation Conference, Washington DC, 8-11 December 2013, 3972-3973. http://informs-sim.org/wsc13papers/by_area.html.
- Kotiadis, K., Tako, A.A. and Vasilakis, C. (2014) A Participative and Facilitative Conceptual Modelling Framework for Discrete Event Simulation Studies in Healthcare. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 65, 197-213.http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jors.2012.176
- Kabene, S.M., Orchard, C, Howard, J.M., Soriano, M. A. and Leduc, R. (2006) The importance of Human Resources Management in Health Care: A Global Context. Human Resources for Health, 4, 20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-4-20
- Lim, E.M., Worster, A., Goeree, R. and Tarride, J.E. (2013) Simulating an Emergency Department: The Importance of Modeling the Interactions between Physicians and Delegates in a Discrete Event Simulation. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 13, 59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6947-13-59
- Banks, J., Carson II, J.S., Nelson, B.L. and Nicol, D.M. (2009) Discrete-Event System Simulation. 5th Edition, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River.