Novel Application of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to Healthcare II

Overview

At the Penn State Health Children’s Hospital, a quality program known as the Performance Improvement and Patient Safety (PIPS) program exists to improve the delivery of care and identify potential insufficiencies or quality problems. An example of one such program within the Children’s Hospital
belongs to the Children’s Surgical Verification (CSV) program, which is designed according to specific requirements according to the American College of Surgeons. To model real-world systems such as a PIPS program within a medical system, model based system engineering (MBSE) techniques can be used to visualize and analyze the system with the ultimate goal of creating focused improvements. Object-process methodology (OPM) is an example of an MBSE tool that leverages modeling with a focus on the objects and processes that encompass a system.

Objectives

The project’s primary aims are to model the CSV’s PIPS program using OPM modeling language and to identify opportunities for improvement in the program based on findings from the modeling process.

Approach

– A previous version of the project was analyzed by the team and discussed with the project sponsor
– The team familiarized itself with OPM language over the course of several weeks
– Chapter 8 of “Optimal Resources for Children’s Surgical Care” was read and analyzed by the team
– Over a period of several weeks, the team identified significant requirements inherent to the
program that were deemed appropriate to be included in the model
– The overall hierarchical model was constructed and continuously modified as deemed necessary
– Several lanes were constructed under the “All Quality Data” entity along with layers for each data
type identified
– Several categories were constructed and analyzed to represent all quality data received
– Each lane, along with its layers, was continuously modified until a final model was achieved

Outcomes

– After the completion of the project, the team
developed a completed OPM model, including a
fourth-order decomposition of Penn State health
with respect to the CSV PIPS program, a visual
breakdown of the types of data in the CSV
program, and unique systems diagrams for the
processing of each type of data and the periodic
review of archived information.
– A list of opportunities for improvement were
identified, primarily relating to insufficiencies in the
documentation of CSV PIPS requirements and its
periodic review.