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- Title
A decision support system for real-time scheduling of multiple patient classes in outpatient services.
- Authors
Millhiser, William P.; Veral, Emre A.
- Abstract
We propose a methodology to provide real-time assistance for outpatient scheduling involving multiple patient types. Schedulers are shown how each prospective placement in the appointment book would impact a day's operational performance for patients and providers. Rooted in prior literature and analytical findings, the information provided to schedulers about vacant slots is based on the probabilities that the calling patient, the already-existing appointments, and the session-end time will be unduly delayed. The information is updated in real-time before and after every new booking; calculations are driven by each patient type's historical consultation times and no-show data, and implemented via a simulation tool based on the underlying analytical methodology. Our findings lead to practical guidelines for dynamically constructing templates that provide allowances for different consultation durations, service time variability, no-show rates, and provider-driven performance targets for patient waiting and provider overtime. Extensions to healthcare batch scheduling applications such as radiology, surgery, or chemotherapy-where patient mixes may be known in advance-are suggested as future research opportunities since avoiding session overtime and procedures' completion time delays involve similar considerations.
- Subjects
MEDICAL appointments; OUTPATIENT services in hospitals; DECISION support systems; OUTPATIENT medical care; MEDICAL care wait times; WORKING hour statistics; WORKING hours; INFORMATION storage &; retrieval systems; MEDICAL databases; PROBABILITY theory; TIME
- Publication
Health Care Management Science, 2019, Vol 22, Issue 1, p180
- ISSN
1386-9620
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1007/s10729-018-9430-1