Public Hospital's Decision Analysis on Providing E-Visit Services

Abstract

E-visits have emerged as a pivotal tool for enhancing both patients' medical experience and the efficient utilization of medical resources. By modeling stylized queueing models, this letter explores the optimal online medical resource allocation decision on providing e-visits in a public hospital, and examines the impact of the external Internet hospital on the public hospital's decision. The public hospital aims to maximize its utility by determining the optimal online medical resource allocation, while patients make their visit decisions based on utility. Results indicate that increased sensitivity of the revisit rate to resource allocation, or higher unit gain associated with e-visit patients (achieved from providing convenient access to medical services and minimizing cross-infection risks), prompts the public hospital to allocate more resources to e-visits. Notably, external Internet hospital price and capacity do not alter the basic influence patterns of the decision, but the resource allocation proportion increases with the external e-visit service price. Moreover, as the external e-visit service capacity expands, the optimal resource allocation proportion decreases when the sensitivity of the revisit rate is low (which indicates the quality is influenced slightly by resource allocation), and exhibits an initial decrease followed by an increase when the sensitivity is high.