Using Process Mining in Healthcare

Abstract

This chapter introduces a specific application domain of process mining: healthcare. Healthcare is a very promising domain for process mining given the significant societal value that can be generated by supporting process improvement in a data-driven way. Within a healthcare organisation, a wide variety of processes is being executed, many of them being highly complex due to their loosely-structured and knowledge-intensive nature. Consequently, performing process mining in healthcare is challenging, but can generate significant societal impact. To provide more insights in process mining in healthcare, this chapter first provides an overview of healthcare processes and healthcare process data, as well as their particularities compared to other domains. Afterwards, an overview of common use cases in process mining in healthcare research is presented, as well as insights from a real-life case study. Subsequently, an overview of open challenges to ensure a widespread adoption of process mining in healthcare is provided. By tackling these challenges, process mining will become able to fully play its role to support evidence-based process improvement in healthcare and, hence, contribute to shaping the best possible care for patients in a way that is sustainable in the long run.