TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM AND PATIENT TRAVEL TO PHYSICIANS AND HOSPITALS

IN PURSUIT OF A LONG-RANGE STUDY OF THE CHICAGO METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL SYSTEM, A VARIETY OF METHODOLOGIES HAS BEEN APPLIED IN EFFORTS TO REPLICATE PATIENT USE OF THE HOSPITAL SYSTEM AND TO EVALUATE ITS LOCATIONAL EFFICIENCY. TWO EXPERIMENTS ARE PRESENTED WHICH ATTEMPT TO OVERCOME SOME OF THE LIMITATIONS OF THE "TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM," AS IT MAY BE APPLIED TO PERSON FLOWS AND TO ASSESS THE THEORETICAL CONSEQUENCES OF SUCH MODIFICATIONS. THE STRUCTURE OF PRICES AND THE PATTERN OF LONGEST PATHS WERE USED AS THE BASIS FOR SHIFTS IN CAPACITY AND MEASUREMENT OF TRAVEL SAVINGS. GREATER REALISM -- THAT IS MORE PATHS TAKEN -- IS ATTAINED BY AN ITERATIVE OPERATION OF THE MODEL ON SUBGROUPS WHICH ARE PRESUMED TO HAVE DIFFERING PERCEPTIONS OF DISTANCES. THESE PROGRAMMING MODIFICATIONS MAY SERVE TO INCREASE THE RANGE OF APPLICABILITY AND THE REALISM OF RESULTS OF THE TRANSPORTATION MODEL. BY INTRODUCING VARIABLE DISTANCE PERCEPTION, THE MODIFIED SOLUTION MAY BE LOOKED UPON AS A FULLER MEASURE OF OPTIMUM BEHAVIOR RATHER THAN A DEPARTURE FROM IT. /AUTHOR/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Vol 5, No 1, PP 11-24
• Corporate Authors:

  Annals of Regional Science

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Morrill, R L
  • Schultz, R
• Publication Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Flow; Hospitals; Mathematical models; Patients; Physicians; Transportation; Travel; Walkways
• Uncontrolled Terms: Transportation models
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00227327
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 29 1971 12:00AM