Process mining as support to simulation modeling: A hospital-based case study

The purpose of this paper is to show how the knowledge of Process Mining techniques can provide a robust premise to build a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) model of a healthcare process. In order to analyze some specific processes of an ophthalmology ward of a large Italian hospital, ProM6 framework was implemented, which supports process mining techniques in form of plug-ins; the plug-ins process data, in form of Event Log, in order to extract information about the process. The DES model based on such information was run via a commercial tool, Simul8, which allows building sophisticated process models. A timely algorithm was then deployed to adapt the ProM6 information to the DES model. Following, a conformance analysis was conducted by comparing the original Event Log, and the Simulation tool data, taking into account the main case-related model attributes (routing probabilities profile, time perspective, and resources perspective). The paper aims at developing the line of inquiry for what concerns the deployment of approaches to set forth the link between Process mining and Simulation modeling.