Abstract Patient flow management is a system-wide process but many healthcare providers do not integrate multiple departments into the process to minimise the time between treatments or medical services for maximum patient throughput. This paper presents a case study of applying Distributed Situation Awareness (DSA) to characterise system-wide patient flow management and identify opportunities for improvements in a healthcare system. This case study employed a three-part method of data elicitation, extraction, and representation to investigate DSA. Social, task, and knowledge networks were developed and then combined to characterise patient flow management and identify deficiencies of the command and control centre of a healthcare facility. Social network analysis provided centrality metrics to further characterise patient flow management. The DSA model helped identify design principles and deficiencies in managing patient flow. These findings indicate that DSA is promising for analysing patient flow management from a system-wide perspective. Practitioner summary: This article examines Distribution Situation Awareness (DSA) as an analysis framework to study system-wide patient flow management. The DSA yields social, task, and knowledge networks that can be combined to characterise patient flow and identify deficiencies in the system. DSA appears promising for analysing communication and coordination of complex systems. Abbreviations: CDM: critical decision method; CTaC: carilion transfer and communications center; EAST: event analysis systematic teamwork; ED: emergency department; DES: discrete event simulation; DSA: distributed situation awareness; SA: situation awareness; SNA: social network analysis

中文翻译：

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分布式态势感知：一种评估和设计患者流动管理的卫生系统方法

摘要 患者流量管理是一个系统范围的过程，但许多医疗保健提供者并未将多个部门整合到该过程中，以最大限度地减少治疗或医疗服务之间的时间，从而最大限度地提高患者吞吐量。本文介绍了应用分布式情境感知 (DSA) 来表征系统范围内的患者流量管理并确定医疗保健系统改进机会的案例研究。本案例研究采用数据启发、提取和表示三部分方法来研究 DSA。社交网络、任务网络和知识网络被开发出来，然后结合起来，以表征患者流量管理并识别医疗机构指挥和控制中心的缺陷。社交网络分析提供了中心性指标，以进一步描述患者流量管理的特征。DSA 模型有助于确定管理患者流量的设计原则和缺陷。这些发现表明 DSA 有望从系统范围的角度分析患者流量管理。从业者摘要：本文将分布情况感知 (DSA) 作为分析框架来研究系统范围的患者流量管理。DSA 产生社会、任务和知识网络，这些网络可以结合起来以表征患者流量并识别系统中的缺陷。DSA 似乎有望用于分析复杂系统的通信和协调。缩写： CDM：关键决策方法；CTaC：carilion传输和通信中心；EAST：事件分析系统团队合作；ED：急诊科；DES：离散事件模拟；DSA：分布式态势感知；SA：态势感知；国民账户体系：