A Model to Decsribe the Hospital Drug Distribution System via First Order Hybrid Petri Nets

The paper proposes a model for simulation and performance evaluation of the hospital drug distribution system, a key process for the effectiveness and efficiency of the ho spital offered services. In particular, we propose a modeling technique employing the first order hybrid Petri nets formalism, i.e., Petri nets making use of first order fluid approximation. The presented model is able to effectively describe the typical doctors and nurses daily operations and may be employed for staffing performance evaluation and optimization. A simulation of the drug distribution system of a department of an Italian hospital is performed in the well-known MATLAB environment to enlighten the potential of the proposed model.