ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a class of Petri nets (PNs) which can be used to model and simulate a wide range of health-care services and organizations. In order to effectively support decision makers of health-care systems, PN models are included in a new modelling methodology dedicated to health-care systems. There are three types of approach for modelling complex systems. The first one consists in using business process modelling (BPM) tools based on a modelling architecture. The second type of approach aims at designing a generic model for health-care systems. The last type of approach consists in proposing modelling and simulation frameworks, featuring a large amount of tools for the modelling of health-care systems. Health-care organizations such as hospitals are compared to manufacturing system in the literature as operational research approaches offer reliable solutions to various organization problems: operating theatre scheduling problem, patient transportation planning, logistic organization, etc.
