Healthcare network modeling and analysis

Abstract

A number of initiatives are nowadays in act to reorganize health systems and increase the interconnection of services offered to citizens to build a collaborative care network that maximizes service quality and minimizes costs. To achieve these purposes, a non standard quality assessment must be performed, as models for the analysis and evaluation of healthcare systems considered from the point of view of the entire network instead of single nodes have not been proposed yet. This paper aims at describing how to obtain a rigorous modeling and a meaningful analysis of the mass of data produced by a healthcare network. This analysis can be useful to inform the healthcare managers about the status of services under their responsibility and the degree of collaboration among entities of the network. The final outcome of these activities will be an improvement in the quality of service perceived by patients.