RE-ENGINEERING HOSPITAL INFORMATION SYSTEM WORKFLOW PROCESS IN A NIGERIAN DENTAL HOSPITAL

Abstract

The existing workflow process that dental patients undergo in hospitals is challenged with the problem of repetitive steps. This has led to redundancy and delay in ensuring the quality of healthcare service delivery. Thus, there is a dire need for a workflow process that will eliminate repeated procedures and reduce the waiting time of service delivery. This paper seeks to reengineer the workflow process in a dental hospital with a view to reducing the problems encountered by dental patients. Through interviews and observation, the time taken for each workflow process was obtained from the staff, doctors, nurses and patients of the Dental Clinic at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex. The existing workflow process model was represented using Petri net and designed using Unified Modelling Language (UML) tools while the proposed model was
represented using process maps and Petri net and designed using UML tools. The two models were simulated in the MATLAB environment using Simulink. The performance of the proposed model was evaluated by benchmarking it with the existing model using patient throughput and waiting time as performance metrics. The proposed model outperformed the existing one significantly. Patient waiting time reduced by 36.8% as a result of the reduction in the number of processes from 14 to 8. At 0.2 patients/sec, patient throughput in the new model was significantly higher. This paper concludes that the proposed model could facilitate effective and efficient healthcare service delivery.