Skip to main content

An Agent-Based Model of a Business Process: The Use Case of a Hospital Emergency Department

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Business Process Management Workshops (BPM 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 308))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

An application of Artificial Intelligence is computational simulation which reproduces the behavior of a system, such as an organization. Simulations provide benefits into business process management, also by combining scenarios and what-if analysis. This study explores the adoption of agent-based modeling technique, in addition to traditional discrete event simulations. The focus is on a real case study of an hospital emergency department. Following the construction of a new hospital, managers are interested in simulating the actual flows in the new configuration before the moving. In our model, patients and operators are agents, acting due to simple behavioral rules in the environment. The different activities are placed on the map of the department, to provide immediate understanding of bottlenecks and queues. While first results were validated from managers, next steps include the comparison of resulting flows between the new and the old department. Logistics analysis includes the time for moving agents between different wards.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    See OpenABM archive at the address: https://www.openabm.org/model/5832.

References

  1. Dumas, M., Rosa, M.L., Mendling, J., Reijers, H.A.: Fundamentals of Business Process Management. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33143-5

    Book  Google Scholar 

  2. Shang, S., Seddon, P.B.: Assessing and managing the benefits of enterprise systems: the business manager’s perspective. Inf. Syst. J. 12(4), 271–299 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Railsback, S.F., Lytinen, S.L., Jackson, S.K.: Agent-based simulation platforms: review and development recommendations. Simulation 82(9), 609–623 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. OECD: OECD science, technology and industry outlook 2012, OECD Publishing (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Williams, S.: Business process modeling improves administrative control. Automation 44, 50 (1967)

    Google Scholar 

  6. van der Aalst, W.M.P., ter Hofstede, A.H.M., Weske, M.: Business process management: a survey. In: van der Aalst, W.M.P., Weske, M. (eds.) BPM 2003. LNCS, vol. 2678, pp. 1–12. Springer, Heidelberg (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44895-0_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Van der Aalst, W.M.P., Nakatumba, J., Rozinat, A., Russell, N.: Business process simulation. In: Brocke, J., Rosemann, M. (eds.) Handbook on BPM 1. International Handbooks on Information Systems, pp. 313–338. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00416-2_15

    Google Scholar 

  8. Scheer, A.-W., Nüttgens, M.: ARIS architecture and reference models for business process management. In: van der Aalst, W., Desel, J., Oberweis, A. (eds.) Business Process Management. LNCS, vol. 1806, pp. 376–389. Springer, Heidelberg (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45594-9_24

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Reijers, H.A. (ed.): Design and Control of Workflow Processes. LNCS, vol. 2617. Springer, Heidelberg (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36615-6

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Lempert, R.: Agent-based modeling as organizational and public policy simulators. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 99(suppl.3), 7195–7196 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Gulledge Jr., T.R., Sommer, R.A.: Business process management: public sector implications. Bus. Process Manag. J. 8(4), 364–376 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Kovacic, A., Pecek, B.: Use of simulation in a public administration process. Simulation 83(12), 851–861 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Vinai, M., Sulis, E.: Health and social public information office simulation (2015). https://www.openabm.org/model/4778/version/2

  14. Di Leva, A., Sulis, E., Vinai, M.: Business process analysis and simulation: the contact center of a public health and social information office. Intell. Inf. Manag. 9(05), 189 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Rouchier, J., Thoyer, S.: Votes and lobbying in the european decision-making process: application to the european regulation on GMO release. J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul. 9(3), 1 (2006). http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/9/3/1/citation.html

    Google Scholar 

  16. Di Leva, A., Sulis, E.: Process analysis for a hospital emergency department. Int. J. Econ. Manag. Syst. 2(1), 34–41 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Lam, K., Lau, R.: A simulation approach to restructuring call centers. Bus. Process Manag. J. 10(4), 481–494 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Jennings, N.R., Norman, T.J., Faratin, P., O’Brien, P., Odgers, B.: Autonomous agents for business process management. Appl. Artif. Intell. 14(2), 145–189 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Friesen, M.R., McLeod, R.D.: A survey of agent-based modeling of hospital environments. IEEE Access 2, 227–233 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Ren, C., Yang, C., Jin, S.: Agent-based modeling and simulation on emergency evacuation. In: Zhou, J. (ed.) Complex 2009. LNICST, vol. 5, pp. 1451–1461. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02469-6_25

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  21. Cabrera, E., Taboada, M., Iglesias, M.L., Epelde, F., Luque, E.: Simulation optimization for healthcare emergency departments. Procedia Comput. Sci. 9, 1464–1473 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Jaramillo, C., Taboada, M., Epelde, F., Rexachs, D., Luque, E.: Agent based model and simulation of mrsa transmission in emergency departments. Procedia Comput. Sci. 51, 443–452 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Landry, S., Philippe, R.: How logistics can service healthcare. Supply Chain Forum Int. J. 5(2), 24–30 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Chan, H., Lo, S., Lee, L., Lo, W., Yu, W., Wu, Y., Ho, S., Yeung, R., Chan, J.: Lean techniques for the improvement of patients flow in emergency department. World J. Emerg. Med. 5(1), 24 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Di Leva, A., Sulis, E.: A business process methodology to investigate organization management: a hospital case study. WSEAS Trans. Bus. Econ. 14, 100–109 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Wilensky, U.: Netlogo, Technical report, Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston (1999)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Adriana Boccuzzi and Dr. Franco Ripa of the San Luigi Gonzaga hospital of Orbassano (Italy). The City of Health and Science of Turin has funded the business processes analysis working group, including the research work of Emilio Sulis.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emilio Sulis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Sulis, E., Di Leva, A. (2018). An Agent-Based Model of a Business Process: The Use Case of a Hospital Emergency Department. In: Teniente, E., Weidlich, M. (eds) Business Process Management Workshops. BPM 2017. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 308. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74030-0_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74030-0_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74029-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74030-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics