Uncertain Demand & Supply Networks Management: Application to a Regional Health Care Service

A Local Sanitary Agency – LSA operating in an Italian region can be described as a multi-stage multi-service-center chain, such that it can be modeled by a Collaborative DEmand and Supply NETwork (CO-DESNET). Such network consists of an organization of service centers which operate in the same health care-dedicated line and interact together to facilitate the patients’ flows along the chain of sanitary services. In order to assure effectiveness and efficiency to the health care network, two main problems have to be approached: 1. how should the different phases of health care be organized in the service centers of the network such as to assure to each component center a sufficient capacity and cost coverage without congestion? 2. how could a collaborative service planning strategy be defined such as to assure to the health care network, as a whole system, clear perspectives of sustainable operations and development? This contribution will discuss an admissible solution of the LSA service planning problem, assuming that such system be modeled by a network of service center under demand uncertainty. The model here adopted will describe the network in terms of negotiation among the service centers (i.e., the “agents” of the network), and conditions supporting collaborations among the component agents will be derived. Copyright © 2005 IFAC.