Production and Operations Management 2004
Volume Flexible Strategies in Health Services: A Research Framework
Abstract
The prevalence of fluctuating demand is increasingly seen as a serious and ongoing issue facing the health services industry. Volume flexibility in a health care setting represents a means to improve service delivery and it allows organizations to leverage their scarce resources for optimal utilization in response to fluctuations in patient demand. This paper develops a research framework that describes four volume flexible strategies based on literature reviews and structured field interviews of health care administrators at a Carnegie I research and teaching hospital. This prescriptive framework and the propositions that are developed create a foundation to help guide future research on the important relationships between demand uncertainty, volume flexible strategies, and organizational performance.
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1937-5956.2004.tb00508.x
- Sources
- openalex