基于顾客选择的医疗呼叫中心的设计与优化

Frequent epidemic outbreaks are challenging the disease control and prevention systems in many countries. In China, medical resources are unevenly distributed and patients have long experienced difficult access and high expenses in seeking treatment. This research studies design and optimization of a type of healthcare call centers that provide telephone triage to help ensure that medical care is delivered at the appropriate level. We incorporate complex customer choice models into a strategic queuing framework. First, customers’ behaviors are determined by multiple factors including insurance and service prices. Second, customers are heterogeneous with different pathologies, insurance coverage or waiting costs. Heterogeneity might change service providers’ decisions and results in different insights from the homogeneous case. Results from this research are expected to provide valuable insights for helping these healthcare call centers to play an important role in alleviating congestion in hospitals and reducing extra expenses.

近年来，流行性疾病的频繁暴发对各国卫生防御体系带来了巨大挑战，敲响了警钟。我国医疗资源分布不均，“看病难，看病贵”一直是长期存在的难题。在此背景下，本课题研究了一类能够起到分诊分流作用的医疗呼叫中心的设计与优化问题，创新性的将复杂的顾客选择行为嵌套在策略排队论的建模框架中：第一，病人的就医选择受到医疗保险和多级医疗机构服务价格等复杂因素的影响。第二，病人的异质性（不同的病情、医疗保险或等待成本）影响服务者的决策。本课题的研究结果将为医疗呼叫中心充分发挥减轻大医院的拥挤程度和降低医疗费用的重要作用而提供有价值的指导意见。

我国医疗资源分布不均，“看病难，看病贵”一直是长期存在的难题。在此背景下，本课题研究了一类起到分诊分流作用的医疗呼叫中心的设计与优化问题，创新性在于：第一，顾客（病人）的选择行为受到多重复杂因素的影响。第二，顾客（病人）的异质性对服务者决策的影响被明确建模。本课题的主要研究结果包括：对比了医疗呼叫中心的理论结果和传统服务运营管理理论的异同，分析了该项成果应用于实践的可能性，深入建模了顾客异质性对管理者最优决策的影响。这些模型和结果将对医疗呼叫中心以及更广泛的基于人为判断的服务过程的建立、运营和优化管理提供有价值的指导意见。