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

Abstract

The emergency department (ED) faces great challenges during the corona pandemic, which has greatly affected the course of work, as the medical staff works to maintain the quality of service and more guarantee the health of patients and staff. With the rapid spread of the coronavirus, ED has become the focus of attention of many researchers, where most of them focused on reducing waiting time and the duration of the patient's length of stay (LOS) through the restructuring of ED. In this study, the authors propose a simulation model using the hierarchical coloured-petri nets (CP-Nets). Several improvement scenarios have been suggested in order to arrive at the optimal solution. Scenarios were compared and solutions were presented to decision makers. This study was conducted at the Hassani Abdelkader Hospital in Sidi Bel Abbes. The authors obtained a model that could be generalized to other hospitals.