Enhancing Timeliness and Accuracy in Blood Transportation through Drone Technology in Saudi Arabia’s Government Clinic
Timely blood sample transportation is crucial for healthcare, particularly in emergencies, in Saudi Arabia’s government clinics, the current process involves daily noon collections by SPL logistics representatives, causing delays in testing and limited availability for urgent cases. Through consultations with a healthcare professional, we identified Key inefficiencies include restricted collection times, absence of onsite laboratories, and lengthy transportation, often exceeding an hour. This study applied business process re-engineering (BPR) to address these issues by integrating drone technology, using the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) framework, the current process (AS-IS) was analyzed, and a future model (TO-BE) incorporating drones was developed, simulations using Bizagi revealed a significant reduction in average process time from 3 hours and 20 minutes to 1 hour and 19 minutes, the findings highlight the potential of drones to revolutionize healthcare logistics, reducing delays and improving patient outcomes, future research proposes a hybrid approach, integrating drones with traditional logistics systems for enhanced efficiency and scalability.
Authors
- Salma Elhag (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1710-9286)
- Meaad Alseraihi
- Amjaad Aljadani
- Samar Alsahafi
- Maryam Alzein
Institutions
- King Abdulaziz University (SA)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-01-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/lt64002.2025.10940291
- Primary Topic
- Blood donation and transfusion practices
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00