IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/navres/v59y2012i8p613-628.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Service design at diagnostic service centers

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaofang Wang
  • Laurens G. Debo
  • Alan Scheller‐Wolf
  • Stephen F. Smith

Abstract

We study a service design problem in diagnostic service centers, call centers that provide medical advice to patients over the phone about what the appropriate course of action is, based on the caller's symptoms. Due to the tension between increased diagnostic accuracy and the increase in waiting times more in‐depth service requires, managers face a difficult decision in determining the optimal service depth to guide the diagnostic process. The specific problem we consider models the situation when the capacity (staffing level) at the center is fixed, and when the callers have both congestion‐ and noncongestion‐related costs relating to their call. We develop a queueing model incorporating these features and find that the optimal service depth can take one of two different structures, depending on factors such as the nurses' skill level and the maximum potential demand. Sensitivity analyses of the two optimal structures show that they are quite different. In some situations, it may (or may not) be optimal for the manager to try to expand the demand at the center, and increasing skill level may (or may not) increase congestion. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaofang Wang & Laurens G. Debo & Alan Scheller‐Wolf & Stephen F. Smith, 2012. "Service design at diagnostic service centers," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(8), pages 613-628, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:navres:v:59:y:2012:i:8:p:613-628
    DOI: 10.1002/nav.21510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/nav.21510
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/nav.21510?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Itay Gurvich & Mor Armony & Constantinos Maglaras, 2009. "Cross-Selling in a Call Center with a Heterogeneous Customer Population," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(2), pages 299-313, April.
    2. Wallace J. Hopp & Seyed M. R. Iravani & Gigi Y. Yuen, 2007. "Operations Systems with Discretionary Task Completion," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(1), pages 61-77, January.
    3. Noah Gans & Ger Koole & Avishai Mandelbaum, 2003. "Telephone Call Centers: Tutorial, Review, and Research Prospects," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 79-141, September.
    4. Catherine W. M. Yeung & Dilip Soman, 2007. "The Duration Heuristic," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(3), pages 315-326, July.
    5. Xiaofang Wang & Laurens G. Debo & Alan Scheller-Wolf & Stephen F. Smith, 2010. "Design and Analysis of Diagnostic Service Centers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(11), pages 1873-1890, November.
    6. Mor Armony & Erica Plambeck & Sridhar Seshadri, 2009. "Sensitivity of Optimal Capacity to Customer Impatience in an Unobservable M/M/S Queue (Why You Shouldn't Shout at the DMV)," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 11(1), pages 19-32, June.
    7. Laurens G. Debo & L. Beril Toktay & Luk N. Van Wassenhove, 2008. "Queuing for Expert Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(8), pages 1497-1512, August.
    8. Ryan W. Buell & Michael I. Norton, 2011. "The Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(9), pages 1564-1579, February.
    9. Krishnan S. Anand & M. Faz{i}l Paç & Senthil Veeraraghavan, 2011. "Quality-Speed Conundrum: Trade-offs in Customer-Intensive Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(1), pages 40-56, January.
    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. Ying Xu & Alan Scheller-Wolf & Katia Sycara, 2015. "The Benefit of Introducing Variability in Single-Server Queues with Application to Quality-Based Service Domains," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(1), pages 233-246, February.

    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. Tom Fangyun Tan & Serguei Netessine, 2014. "When Does the Devil Make Work? An Empirical Study of the Impact of Workload on Worker Productivity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(6), pages 1574-1593, June.
    2. Xiaofang Wang & Laurens G. Debo & Alan Scheller-Wolf & Stephen F. Smith, 2010. "Design and Analysis of Diagnostic Service Centers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(11), pages 1873-1890, November.
    3. Diwas S. KC & Bradley R. Staats & Maryam Kouchaki & Francesca Gino, 2020. "Task Selection and Workload: A Focus on Completing Easy Tasks Hurts Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(10), pages 4397-4416, October.
    4. Hummy Song & Anita L. Tucker & Karen L. Murrell, 2015. "The Diseconomies of Queue Pooling: An Empirical Investigation of Emergency Department Length of Stay," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(12), pages 3032-3053, December.
    5. Ying Xu & Alan Scheller-Wolf & Katia Sycara, 2015. "The Benefit of Introducing Variability in Single-Server Queues with Application to Quality-Based Service Domains," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(1), pages 233-246, February.
    6. Ni, Guanqun & Xu, Yinfeng & Dong, Yucheng, 2013. "Price and speed decisions in customer-intensive services with two classes of customers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 228(2), pages 427-436.
    7. Philipp Afèche & Mojtaba Araghi & Opher Baron, 2017. "Customer Acquisition, Retention, and Service Access Quality: Optimal Advertising, Capacity Level, and Capacity Allocation," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 674-691, October.
    8. Masha Shunko & Julie Niederhoff & Yaroslav Rosokha, 2018. "Humans Are Not Machines: The Behavioral Impact of Queueing Design on Service Time," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(1), pages 453-473, January.
    9. Vasiliki Kostami & Sampath Rajagopalan, 2014. "Speed–Quality Trade-Offs in a Dynamic Model," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 16(1), pages 104-118, February.
    10. Ryan W. Buell & Michael I. Norton, 2011. "The Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(9), pages 1564-1579, February.
    11. repec:zbw:rwirep:0277 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Michael Freeman & Nicos Savva & Stefan Scholtes, 2017. "Gatekeepers at Work: An Empirical Analysis of a Maternity Unit," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(10), pages 3147-3167, October.
    13. Maria R. Ibanez & Jonathan R. Clark & Robert S. Huckman & Bradley R. Staats, 2018. "Discretionary Task Ordering: Queue Management in Radiological Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(9), pages 4389-4407, September.
    14. Tinglong Dai & Mustafa Akan & Sridhar Tayur, 2017. "Imaging Room and Beyond: The Underlying Economics Behind Physicians’ Test-Ordering Behavior in Outpatient Services," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 99-113, February.
    15. Yu, Jianjun & Fang, Yanli & Zhong, Yuanguang & Zhang, Xiong & Zhang, Ruijie, 2022. "Pricing and quality strategies for an on-demand housekeeping platform with customer-intensive services," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    16. Saed Alizamir & Francis de Véricourt & Peng Sun, 2013. "Diagnostic Accuracy Under Congestion," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(1), pages 157-171, December.
    17. Wang, Jian-Jun & Zhang, Xinmou & Shi, Jim Junmin, 2023. "Hospital dual-channel adoption decisions with telemedicine referral and misdiagnosis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    18. Saghafian, Soroush & Hopp, Wallace J. & Iravani, Seyed M. R. & Cheng, Yao & Diermeier, Daniel, 2017. "Workload Management in Telemedical Physician Triage and Other Knowledge-Based Service Systems," Working Paper Series rwp17-035, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    19. Kuntz, Ludwig & Mennicken, Roman & Scholtes, Stefan, 2011. "Stress on the Ward – An Empirical Study of the Nonlinear Relationship between Organizational Workload and Service Quality," Ruhr Economic Papers 277, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    20. Tinglong Dai & Ronghuo Zheng & Katia Sycara, 2020. "Jumping the Line, Charitably: Analysis and Remedy of Donor-Priority Rule," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(2), pages 622-641, February.
    21. Mor Armony & Efrat Perel & Nir Perel & Uri Yechiali, 2019. "Exact analysis for multiserver queueing systems with cross selling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 274(1), pages 75-100, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:navres:v:59:y:2012:i:8:p:613-628. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1520-6750 .

    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.