Process Modeling and Conformance Checking in Healthcare: A COVID-19 Case Study

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.

Automated summary

The aim of this study is to develop a normative model representing the clinical guidelines for COVID-19 patients in the ICU ward of a hospital in Germany, and analyze the adherence of observed behavior to these guidelines. The results show that analysis using conformance checking techniques can identify main deviations from the guidelines and provide useful indications for improving the care process. The resulting model is shared as an open-source BPMN file.