Abstract

ANALYSIS OF PATIENTS FLOW IN AN EMERGENCY WARD USING FUZZY CRITICAL PATH METHOD AND FUZZY PROGRAM EVALUATION AND REVIEW TECHNIQUE (A CASE STUDY OF AMINU KANO TEACHING HOSPITAL, KANO, NIGERIA)

Ali Maianguwa Shuaibu, 2Maryam Nuraini Muhammad and 2Nasir Rabiu

---

In this paper, a mathematical model is proposed to handle project scheduling problem under vagueness. The intent is to model patients flow process in imprecise or vague circumstances using critical path analysis. Furthermore, the research discusses utilization of fuzzy critical path method in conjunction with fuzzy program evaluation and review technique to determine the duration required for the treatment of patients in emergency ward of Aminu Kano teaching hospital. The activities considered are those affecting patients flow during treatments in the emergency ward and the related project network is drawn. The reason for incorporating fuzzy logic in this research comes from the fact that fuzzy numbers are more reliable in dealing with ambiguous processes such as witnessed in the emergency ward of a hospital. The choice of emergency department for this work is because it is a major access point where from the beginning patients are given treatments for a wide range of sicknesses and injuries. These sicknesses and injuries may be deadly and requires prompt attention. Therefore, any delay in patient treatment in the emergency ward may result in undesired consequences and losses of lives. Findings through the application of fuzzy critical path method and fuzzy program evaluation and review technique enabled the determination of the critical path and patients’ treatment expected completion time. The entire idea is to reduce unnecessary delay by eliminating unnecessary activities, thus increase the quality of treatment of patients in the hospital. Keywords: Emergency ward, fuzzy critical path, slack times, patient treatment, fuzzy logic.

PDF