Toolkit for Healthcare Professionals: A Colored Petri Nets Based Approach for Modeling and Simulation of Healthcare Workflows

In 2017, Academic Emergency Medicine convened a consensus conference on Catalyzing System Change through Health Care Simulation: Systems, Competency, and Outcomes to assess the impact of simulation on various aspects of healthcare delivery. One focus area was the role that computer modeling and simulation can and should play in the research and development of emergency care delivery systems. In this paper, we illustrate the use and application of Colored Petri Nets (CPNs) for modeling and simulating healthcare workflow processes. Specifically, we detail our approach by modeling patient flow to an operating room. The model accounts for various resources and their utilization. We use hierarchical Colored Petri Nets with modules and the associated graphical integrated development environment called CPN Tools for creating and simulating the model. The hierarchy and module concepts of CPNs allow the modeling of large and complex systems in an incremental and top-down manner.