xPlan – Visualizing patient flow to support strategic infrastructure planning in hospitals

Hospitals collect large amounts of data during their daily operation. Next to its immediate primary purpose, this data also contains implicit information that can be used to improve clinical and administrative processes. We present a case study of how strategic infrastructure planning can be supported by the analysis of enriched patient flow through a hospital. Data from various hospital information systems was collected, enriched with topographical and organizational data, and integrated into a coherent data store. Common analysis tools and methods do not support exploration and sense-making well for such large and complex problems. We therefore developed a highly interactive visual analytics application that offers various views onto the data. The analysts were able to validate their experiences, confirm hypotheses and generate new insights. As a result, several sub-systems of clinics were identified that will play a central role on the future hospital campus. In this case study we show that a different view on electronic health records can provide not only clinical insights but also help improve operational efficiency.

D. Brodbeck, M. Degen, A. Walter. Supporting Strategic Planning with Interactive Visualization – A Case Study of Patient Flow through a Large Hospital. Proceedings of HEALTHINF 2013, 6th International Conference on Health Informatics, Barcelona, Spain, 2013.

Here is a link to the full text of the paper that we presented at the HEALTHINF 2013 conference.

We gave a talk at TEDx Basel that covers some of this research: