Process Analysis for a Hospital Emergency Department

Abstract: This paper provides an application of the BP-M* methodology to care pathway for patients in a healthcare Emergency Department. On the basis of an analysis of the context, a decision support framework made of several Key Performance Indicators is performed. By using the model, managers were able to run different scenarios, to identify bottlenecks and to explore solutions that can lead to better performance. The model takes into account not only the flow of patients but also: a) the timing of the activities and resources used (both personnel and equipment), b) the severity of the patient’s pathology, c) the distribution in time of arrivals of patients. By running several experiments with different configurations, the analysis of these scenarios has provided useful information for management of the department and for the re-engineering of the process.