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732. Generalized or Specialized Hospitals: An Analytical Queuing Approach to Explore Clinical Service Configurations
Contributed abstract in session MD-15: Healthcare services, stream OR in Health Services (ORAHS).
Monday, 14:30-16:00Room: 18 (building: 116)
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | MOHAMMAD AMINJARAHI
|
| Bayes Business School, City, University of London | |
| 2. | Navid Izady
|
| Bayes Business School | |
| 3. | Dimitris Paraskevopoulos
|
| Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), City, University of London |
Abstract
In multi-hospital networks (MHNs), a critical decision revolves around how to allocate clinical services across different hospitals with limited capacity. This decision typically falls between two extremes: a fully generalized configuration where all services are offered in every hospital, and a fully specialized configuration where each hospital exclusively provides one service. However, research and practical evidence indicate that neither fully specialized nor fully generalized configurations are optimal. In this paper, we present a mathematical model along with an exact analytical solution to explore the optimal service configuration within an MHN comprising two hospitals of equal fixed capacity and two services. Our model addresses uncertainty by incorporating queueing theory and economies of scale, crucial factors in service configuration problems. Through extensive numerical experiments, we demonstrate that, in most scenarios, a semi-specialized configuration emerges as optimal, maintaining one hospital as general and the other as specialized. Nonetheless, there are specific circumstances where alternative configurations, such as fully specialized or fully generalized, may prove optimal.
Keywords
- Health Care
- Queuing Systems
- Programming, Nonlinear
Status: accepted
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