Patient Flow Congestion Control Based on Stochastic Timed Petri Net Model

Abstract

Resource allocation has always been an important part of healthcare systems. The goal is to allocate resources more reasonably and thus reduce the waiting time of patients during their visits to healthcare facilities. In this paper, we use stochastic timed Petri nets (STPN) to model and simulate medical service processes and evaluate their performance. In particular, we propose a mechanism with which more doctors can be added to a service unit when a patient flow congestion is detected, and the added doctors will be freed when congestion is relieved. A case study is performed to show the effectiveness of this new adaptive resource allocation mechanism.