From production systems to health care delivery systems: a retrospective look on similarities, difficulties and opportunities
本文回顾了从生产系统研究转向医疗保健服务系统的经验，讨论了两者在建模、设计、绩效评估和持续改进上的相似性，以及因变异性、约束、动态性和人类行为带来的差异与困难，并探讨了医疗保健服务中的运营、调度、患者转诊和团队协作等机遇。
Manufacturing systems have attracted substantial research attentions during the last 50 years. In recent years, there has been growing interest in health care systems research to improve efficiency, safety and care quality. The similarities identified between manufacturing systems and health care delivery systems heighten the importance of transferring the experience and knowledge in manufacturing to health care. In this paper, based on the lessons we learned and the experience we obtained during our journey from production systems research to health care delivery systems study, we discuss the similarities between production systems and health care delivery systems in system modelling, design, performance evaluation and continuous improvements and investigate the differences and difficulties that stem from variability, constraints, dynamics and human behaviour. Building upon these, the opportunities encompassing care operations, planning and scheduling, patient transitions, and safety and teamwork in health care delivery systems are discussed. Finally, the challenges and future directions are proposed. We expect this work to serve as a catalyst to stimulate more in-depth and comprehensive studies.