Volume Flexible Strategies in Health Services: A Research Framework
基于文献综述和对一家研究型教学医院管理者的结构化访谈，提出了四种数量柔性策略，并构建了研究框架，以指导未来关于需求不确定性、数量柔性策略与组织绩效之间关系的研究。
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.