MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF HEALTH CARE CENTRE FLOW PROCESS: A TIMED COLOURED PETRINET APPROACH.

ABSTRACT Hospital deals with human lives, which are often at risk and where everything depends on quick response to diverse medical conditions. Thus, the need for effective management of patient care flow process in a hospital is being one of the main leading goals in health sector. In this paper, a Timed Coloured Petri Nets (TCPN) formalism is used to develop a simulation model for patient care flow process with emphasis on medical record area and examination room using Federal Polytechnic Offa Medical Health Centre Offa, as a case study. The developed TCPN model consists of a main model (arrival and evaluation mode) and a sub model (treatment module). The main model abstracts the arrival and operation (pre-treatment test) in the medical record area while the sub-model describes the operation (treatment) taking place in the examination room of the health centre. The developed TCPN model was simulated using CPN tools while its validation was explored by comparing the simulated and actual number of patients of the health centre under study. The results obtained from the simulation of the TCPN model revealed 35(7 inpatients and 28 outpatients), 38(6inpatients and 32 outpatients), 37(7 inpatients and 30 outpatients) and 36(5inpatients and 31 outpatients) as the average numbers of patients entering the health centre during the first, second, third and fourth working days under consideration, respectively. Statistically, there were no significant differences between the simulated and real number of patients entering the health centre at 5% level. This gave a confirmation that the developed TCPN model accurately described the patient care flow process of the health centre under study. The developed TCPN model could serve as a referential model for studying and improving patient care flow process in a named health centre.