System Reengineering in Healthcare: Application for Hospital Emergency Departments (Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, 172)

This book presents an advanced systematic mapping review (SMR) and state-of-the-art taxonomy of emergency departments (EDs). Focusing on the patients’ level of fulfilment and how it can be enhanced, it examines existing problems like waiting periods and overcrowding and how these can be alleviated to provide a better service. The author examined research papers from 1964 to 2018, and developed six research questions, organising them using mapping studies, the primary objectives of which were firstly, to obtain a common understanding of the problems that need to be highlighted in EDs, and secondly, to re-analyse the methods used.

The book concludes that an analytical decision-making process should be used to assess a health technology on the basis of its performance. It stresses the importance of updating this analytical system frequently.