Agent based modelling of an emergency department and path planning optimization of a mobile real time location system

This research is directed towards improving patient care within a hospital’s Emergency Department (ED) by providing support for health care administrators and policy decision makers. The work presented is an innovative automated data collection system, thereby freeing ED workers to focus on the most important aspect of their job: patient care. The thesis is organized as follows; patient data from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s Emergency Department Information System is used to provide insight into the patient flow processes within an ED. This process analysis was critical in developing an agent-based model of process flow (patients and staff) within an ED. From this point, emphasis was placed on illustrating the utility of an Agent Based Model (ABM) in the optimization of a mobile Real Time Location System (mRTLS). Current data collection methods used for localization in health care facilities involving human data collection methods often tend to generate inconsistent and ambiguous data. To address these data collection problems, an automated ceiling mounted mRTLS is proposed. The system utilizes mobile Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and is evaluated using ABM and optimized using metaheuristic genetic and simulated annealing algorithms. A prototypical agent model for an emergency facility was created using AnyLogic simulation software. The emergency department model is outfitted with mRTLS using mobile, ceiling-mounted RFID readers. Path planning and resource provisioning of mobile readers is accomplished using both a multiobjective genetic algorithm and a multiobjective simulated annealing algorithm. The genetic algorithm optimizes initial placement of static readers by finding areas where RFID tags are more frequently found. This generates the input parameters for the second algorithm, a multiobjective simulated annealing algorithm. The simulated annealing algorithm provides the first-cut path for the deployment of mobile readers. These paths are