IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jomega/v99y2021ics0305048319305353.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regulating patient care in walk-in clinics

Author

Listed:
  • Pazoki, Mostafa
  • Samarghandi, Hamed

Abstract

This paper studies the problem of government intervention in walk-in clinics regarding patient satisfaction. Since walk-in clinics benefit from the number of patients they serve (fee-for-service), it may be in their best interest to reduce the visit times; consequently, patient care and quality of service may be sacrificed to gain more revenue. For this matter, a walk-in clinic as a queuing system with stochastic arrival and visit times is studied. To identify the cases when the quality of service is compromised for maximizing clinic’s revenue and therefore government intervention may be required, we compare revenue maximization policies and patient satisfaction maximization policies under various scenarios defined based on the proportion of the arriving patients to the clinic’s capacity and also the existence of local competition. It is concluded that if patients’ arrival rate is relatively small compared to the clinic’s capacity, regulation is not required. Otherwise, a regulation in the form of minimum visit time can increase patient satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Pazoki, Mostafa & Samarghandi, Hamed, 2021. "Regulating patient care in walk-in clinics," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:99:y:2021:i:c:s0305048319305353
    DOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2020.102200
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305048319305353
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.omega.2020.102200?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shuwan Zhu & Wenjuan Fan & Shanlin Yang & Jun Pei & Panos M. Pardalos, 2019. "Operating room planning and surgical case scheduling: a review of literature," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 757-805, April.
    2. Persson, Marie & Persson, Jan A., 2009. "Health economic modeling to support surgery management at a Swedish hospital," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 853-863, August.
    3. Shuangchi He & Melvyn Sim & Meilin Zhang, 2019. "Data-Driven Patient Scheduling in Emergency Departments: A Hybrid Robust-Stochastic Approach," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(9), pages 4123-4140, September.
    4. Linda V. Green, 2012. "OM Forum--The Vital Role of Operations Analysis in Improving Healthcare Delivery," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(4), pages 488-494, October.
    5. Nicos Savva & Tolga Tezcan & Özlem Yıldız, 2019. "Can Yardstick Competition Reduce Waiting Times?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(7), pages 3196-3215, July.
    6. Hamed Mamani & Stephen E. Chick & David Simchi-Levi, 2013. "A Game-Theoretic Model of International Influenza Vaccination Coordination," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(7), pages 1650-1670, July.
    7. Leo, Gianmaria & Lodi, Andrea & Tubertini, Paolo & Di Martino, Mirko, 2016. "Emergency Department Management in Lazio, Italy," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 128-138.
    8. G Royston, 2009. "One hundred years of Operational Research in Health—UK 1948–2048," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(1), pages 169-179, May.
    9. Kibaek Kim & Sanjay Mehrotra, 2015. "A Two-Stage Stochastic Integer Programming Approach to Integrated Staffing and Scheduling with Application to Nurse Management," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1431-1451, December.
    10. Jackson, Jeffrey L. & Chamberlin, Judith & Kroenke, Kurt, 2001. "Predictors of patient satisfaction," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(4), pages 609-620, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Duma, Davide & Aringhieri, Roberto, 2023. "Real-time resource allocation in the emergency department: A case study," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    2. Agnihothri, Saligrama & Cappanera, Paola & Nonato, Maddalena & Visintin, Filippo, 2024. "Appointment scheduling in surgery pre-admission testing clinics," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    3. Sun, Mingyao & Chai, Qiangfei & Ng, Chi To, 2023. "Managing the quality-speed tradeoff in blockchain-supported healthcare diagnostic services," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tinglong Dai & Sridhar Tayur, 2020. "OM Forum—Healthcare Operations Management: A Snapshot of Emerging Research," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 869-887, September.
    2. Pinar Keskinocak & Nicos Savva, 2020. "A Review of the Healthcare-Management (Modeling) Literature Published in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 59-72, January.
    3. Tohidi, Mohammad & Kazemi Zanjani, Masoumeh & Contreras, Ivan, 2021. "A physician planning framework for polyclinics under uncertainty," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    4. Miguel Angel Ortíz-Barrios & Juan-José Alfaro-Saíz, 2020. "Methodological Approaches to Support Process Improvement in Emergency Departments: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-41, April.
    5. Shuwan Zhu & Wenjuan Fan & Shanlin Yang & Jun Pei & Panos M. Pardalos, 2019. "Operating room planning and surgical case scheduling: a review of literature," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 757-805, April.
    6. Ivanov, Dmitry, 2020. "Predicting the impacts of epidemic outbreaks on global supply chains: A simulation-based analysis on the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) case," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    7. Duma, Davide & Aringhieri, Roberto, 2023. "Real-time resource allocation in the emergency department: A case study," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    8. Anil Aswani & Zuo-Jun Max Shen & Auyon Siddiq, 2019. "Data-Driven Incentive Design in the Medicare Shared Savings Program," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 67(4), pages 1002-1026, July.
    9. Muhammad Rahies Khan & Amir Manzoor, 2021. "Application and Impact of New Technologies in the Supply Chain Management During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Literature Review," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(2), pages 277-292.
    10. Sandeep Rath & Kumar Rajaram, 2022. "Staff Planning for Hospitals with Implicit Cost Estimation and Stochastic Optimization," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(3), pages 1271-1289, March.
    11. Hekkert, Karin Dorieke & Cihangir, Sezgin & Kleefstra, Sophia Martine & van den Berg, Bernard & Kool, Rudolf Bertijn, 2009. "Patient satisfaction revisited: A multilevel approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 68-75, July.
    12. Linus Nyiwul, 2021. "Epidemic Control and Resource Allocation: Approaches and Implications for the Management of COVID-19," Studies in Microeconomics, , vol. 9(2), pages 283-305, December.
    13. Rodolfo Mendoza-Gómez & Roger Z. Ríos-Mercado & Karla B. Valenzuela-Ocaña, 2019. "An Efficient Decision-Making Approach for the Planning of Diagnostic Services in a Segmented Healthcare System," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(05), pages 1631-1665, September.
    14. Hamsa Bastani & Joel Goh & Mohsen Bayati, 2019. "Evidence of Upcoding in Pay-for-Performance Programs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(3), pages 1042-1060, March.
    15. Ping Zhang & Hong Yan & King Wah Pang, 2019. "Inventory Sharing Strategy for Disposable Medical Items between Two Hospitals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-21, November.
    16. Stefan Meinzer & Johann Prenninger & Patrick Vesel & Johannes Kornhuber & Judith Volmer & Joachim Hornegger & Björn M. Eskofier, 2016. "Translating satisfaction determination from health care to the automotive industry," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 10(4), pages 651-685, December.
    17. Manish Bansal & Yingqiu Zhang, 2021. "Scenario-based cuts for structured two-stage stochastic and distributionally robust p-order conic mixed integer programs," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 81(2), pages 391-433, October.
    18. Rachuba, Sebastian & Imhoff, Lisa & Werners, Brigitte, 2022. "Tactical blueprints for surgical weeks – An integrated approach for operating rooms and intensive care units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(1), pages 243-260.
    19. Acuna, Jorge A. & Zayas-Castro, José L. & Charkhgard, Hadi, 2020. "Ambulance allocation optimization model for the overcrowding problem in US emergency departments: A case study in Florida," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    20. Diwas KC & Tongil Kim, 2022. "Impact of universal healthcare on patient choice and quality of care," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(5), pages 2167-2184, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:99:y:2021:i:c:s0305048319305353. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/375/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.