Service variety strategies for healthcare systems under capacity limitations Online publication date: Fri, 08-Dec-2023
by Lu Chen; Yi Xia; Jiajia Zhu; Junyi Li
European J. of Industrial Engineering (EJIE), Vol. 18, No. 1, 2024
Abstract: Some hospitals provide paid medical services in addition to basic medical services. Although paid medical services can provide a better experience for patients who are highly sensitive to delays, they cause a capacity reduction in basic medical services. We develop a model incorporating product line design and queuing models to determine the service capacity allocation for a healthcare system. Patients are categorised into two segments according to their sensitivities to waiting time. We derive the optimal capacity allocations under two strategies (providing both paid and basic medical services and providing only the basic one) and compare them. Results show that the hospital should provide only the basic medical service even if high-sensitive patients are extremely sensitive to waiting time. Under certain conditions, a hospital providing differentiated medical services should decrease capacity allocation to the paid service even if high-sensitive patients are extremely sensitive to waiting time. [Received: 13 April 2022; Accepted: 22 September 2022]
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the European J. of Industrial Engineering (EJIE):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook