Modelling and Simulation of Patient Flow in the Emergency Department During the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Hierarchical Coloured Petri Net

Literature Review

The use of computer simulations in the healthcare domain is not new, as it dates back to the late 1970s (Hancock, et al., 1979). Several researchers have focused on solving the problem of patient LOS in the ED using simulation techniques (Yousefi&Ferreira, 2017). Simulation has been applied in a multitude of issues such as analysis of patient data, mastery and optimisation of flows, process modeling, and resource scheduling (Derni, et al., 2019). For example, to reduce the patients’ LOS, Nas and Koyuncu (2019) developed a simulation model to determine the optimal number of beds in the ED.

Mathematical models and algorithmic frameworks(Ala &Chen, 2019) were proposed to reduce patient waiting time and determine the timing of emergency center services, and to solve the patient scheduling problem, Tabu search method and L-shaped algorithm was used. Derni et al. (2019)[2] designed the Fuzzy Logic system in order to determine the appropriate amount of resources that could be added to ED, and to measure the improvement achieved, a CP-Nets simulation model was constructed and compared to the current state of the system.