Petri net application in simulation of ambulatory processes

This paper presents a simulation of an ambulatory processes using timed Petri net (TPN). The simulation considers the flow of patients in the biggest Brazilian cardiology hospital. The TPN is used as a decision support system (DSS) in order to improve the processes, to reduce the waiting time of the patients in the ambulatory and in this way to assure a high quality service to the patients. Simulations were carried out using the software Visual Object Net++. This is a free software and therefore the presented solution is a low cost solution. To provide a low cost solution is very important since the hospital is kept from the government and operates with limited financial resources. The patients´ workflow in the hospital can be faced as a service and the modelling and optimization of these services bring more efficiency to the system as well as improve the human factors involved.