A Decision-Making Tool for a Regional Network of Clinical Laboratories

Jose L. Andrade-Pineda (), Pedro L. Gonzalez-R () and Jose M. Framinan ()
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Jose L. Andrade-Pineda: School of Engineering, University of Seville, Seville 41092, Spain
Pedro L. Gonzalez-R: School of Engineering, University of Seville, Seville 41092, Spain
Jose M. Framinan: School of Engineering, University of Seville, Seville 41092, Spain

Interfaces, 2013, vol. 43, issue 4, 360-372

Abstract: For healthcare systems that operate in large, geographically dispersed areas, the quality of the services provided requires the effective management of a complex transportation problem. We present a decision support system to help healthcare managers improve the delivery of biological samples collected from patients in hospitals and outpatient clinics to laboratories that perform tests on them. We develop an optimization model for supporting strategic decisions on the transport of samples and the assignment of work in a large healthcare network with geographically dispersed hospitals, clinics, and testing laboratories. We embed our model in a Web-based tool to provide planners with interactive functions, enabling them to explore solutions and interactively access data to facilitate the analysis of what-if scenarios. The tool proved invaluable in helping the Andalusian Healthcare System obtain significant improvements in efficiency, quality of service, and outsourcing costs.

Keywords: decision support; clinical laboratories network; production and transportation planning; mixed integer programming; graphic decision tool (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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