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Temporal Graph Transformer for Predicting Interdepartmental Workflow Congestion Using Patient Movement Data, Service Requests, Staff Schedules, Unit-Level Dependency Networks, and Real-Time Capacity Signals
Hospital congestion is an interconnected operational phenomenon in which local delays can cascade across emergency, inpatient, diagnostic, pharmacy, and consultative services. Prediction has often been organized around individual departments rather than the hospital as a coupled system. Current forecasting approaches do not sufficiently represent dynamic dependencies among units, including patient transfers, service requests, staffing availability, and real-time capacity. This limits their ability to anticipate how pressure in one department could propagate into another. This article proposes a temporal graph transformer for forecasting interdepartmental workflow congestion across a hospital network. The model is designed to learn from time-varying departmental relationships and produce forward-looking congestion estimates for operational decision support. The proposed framework represents hospital units as graph nodes annotated with capacity, queue, and staffing signals. Directed edges are weighted by patient movement and service request dependencies, and a temporal graph transformer processes graph sequences to estimate future congestion probabilities for each unit. Conceptually, the model would be expected to identify building pressure before it appears as visible delay. Such forecasts could support proactive coordination, including staff redeployment, transfer prioritization, and service sequencing. A graph-based temporal perspective could shift hospital congestion management from reactive firefighting toward coordinated, predictive flow control. The proposed model provides a conceptual foundation for future prospective evaluation in real-time operational settings.
Journal of Health Informatics and Digital Systems
Original Research | Open access | 20 July 2026 | Article: 131
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AI-driven Diagnostics Artificial Intelligence in Health Informatics Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Big Data in Healthcare Clinical Data Mining Clinical Decision Support Systems Clinical Informatics Computer Vision Connected Health Systems Deep Learning Digital Health Digital Healthcare Innovation Digital Transformation in Healthcare Electronic Health Records Ethical AI in Healthcare Explainable AI Health Data Analytics Health Data Privacy Health Informatics Health Information Management Health Information Systems Health System Optimization Health Technology Assessment Healthcare Data Science Healthcare Informatics Healthcare Information Security Healthcare Management Healthcare Management Information Systems Intelligent Medical Systems Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) Interoperability in Healthcare Systems Machine Learning Medical Data Analytics Medical Data Management Medical Imaging Mobile Health (mHealth) Natural Language Processing Precision Medicine Predictive Analytics Remote Patient Monitoring Smart Healthcare Systems Telemedicine Wearable Health Technologies e-Health




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