Minimizing expected waiting in a medical appointment system

An appointment policy is established for a specific outpatient system, with the goal of reducing a combination of patients' expected waiting times and doctor's expected overtime. Service times are stochastic, and patients are assumed to be punctual if they show for their appointments. Subs...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IIE transactions 2000-09, Vol.32 (9), p.841-848
Main Authors: BOSCH, PETER M. VANDEN, DIETZ, DENNIS C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cost accounting
Health care industry
Medical departments (industrial plants)
Optimization
Overtime
Patients
Public policy
Random processes
Scheduling
Studies
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Summary:An appointment policy is established for a specific outpatient system, with the goal of reducing a combination of patients' expected waiting times and doctor's expected overtime. Service times are stochastic, and patients are assumed to be punctual if they show for their appointments. Substantial reductions in waiting times can be obtained over traditional scheduling practices, and the procedure is easily implemented by a naive scheduler once the optimal policy is established.
ISSN:0740-817X
2472-5854
1545-8830
2472-5862
DOI:10.1080/07408170008967443