Process Modeling and Conformance Checking in Healthcare: A COVID-19 Case Study
This work addresses process adherence in healthcare for COVID-19 patients, but it is incremental as it applies existing process mining techniques to a new case study.
The study developed a normative model for COVID-19 treatment guidelines and used conformance checking to analyze deviations in ICU processes at a German hospital, providing physicians with insights to improve care quality and patient satisfaction.
The discipline of process mining has a solid track record of successful applications to the healthcare domain. Within such research space, we conducted a case study related to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ward of the Uniklinik Aachen hospital in Germany. The aim of this work is twofold: developing a normative model representing the clinical guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, and analyzing the adherence of the observed behavior (recorded in the information system of the hospital) to such guidelines. We show that, through conformance checking techniques, it is possible to analyze the care process for COVID-19 patients, highlighting the main deviations from the clinical guidelines. The results provide physicians with useful indications for improving the process and ensuring service quality and patient satisfaction. We share the resulting model as an open-source BPMN file.