Biomaterial Database

Scheduling rules to achieve lead-time targets in outpatient appointment systems. 2017

Thu-Ba T Nguyen, and Appa Iyer Sivakumar, and Stephen C Graves

Manufacturing Systems and Technology Program, Singapore-MIT Alliance, 65 Nanyang Drive, Singapore, 637460, Singapore. ng0003ba@e.ntu.edu.sg.

This paper considers how to schedule appointments for outpatients, for a clinic that is subject to appointment lead-time targets for both new and returning patients. We develop heuristic rules, which are the exact and relaxed appointment scheduling rules, to schedule each new patient appointment (only) in light of uncertainty about future arrivals. The scheduling rules entail two decisions. First, the rules need to determine whether or not a patient's request can be accepted; then, if the request is not rejected, the rules prescribe how to assign the patient to an available slot. The intent of the scheduling rules is to maximize the utilization of the planned resource (i.e., the physician staff), or equivalently to maximize the number of patients that are admitted, while maintaining the service targets on the median, the 95th percentile, and the maximum appointment lead-times. We test the proposed scheduling rules with numerical experiments using real data from the chosen clinic of Tan Tock Seng hospital in Singapore. The results show the efficiency and the efficacy of the scheduling rules, in terms of the service-target satisfaction and the resource utilization. From the sensitivity analysis, we find that the performance of the proposed scheduling rules is fairly robust to the specification of the established lead-time targets.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D010045	Outpatients	Persons who receive ambulatory care at an outpatient department or clinic without room and board being provided.	Out-patients,Out patients,Out-patient,Outpatient
D006297	Health Services Accessibility	The degree to which individuals are inhibited or facilitated in their ability to gain entry to and to receive care and services from the health care system. Factors influencing this ability include geographic, architectural, transportational, and financial considerations, among others.	Access To Care, Health,Access to Care,Access to Contraception,Access to Health Care,Access to Health Services,Access to Medications,Access to Medicines,Access to Therapy,Access to Treatment,Accessibility of Health Services,Availability of Health Services,Contraception Access,Contraceptive Access,Medication Access,Accessibility, Health Services,Contraceptive Availability,Health Services Geographic Accessibility,Program Accessibility,Access to Cares,Access to Contraceptions,Access to Medication,Access to Medicine,Access to Therapies,Access to Treatments,Access, Contraception,Access, Contraceptive,Access, Medication,Accessibilities, Health Services,Accessibility, Program,Availability, Contraceptive,Care, Access to,Cares, Access to,Contraception, Access to,Contraceptive Accesses,Health Services Availability,Medication Accesses,Medication, Access to,Medicine, Access to,Medicines, Access to,Therapy, Access to,Treatment, Access to
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000554	Ambulatory Care Facilities	Those facilities which administer health services to individuals who do not require hospitalization or institutionalization.	Clinics, Free-Standing,Health Centers, Ambulatory,Outpatient Clinics,Abortion Centers,Abortion Clinics,Ambulatory Care Facilities, Non Hospital,Ambulatory Care Facilities, Non-Hospital,Ambulatory Care Facilities, Nonhospital,Clinic Activities,Family Planning Centers,Outpatient Clinic,Urgent Care Centers,Urgent Care Clinics,Abortion Center,Abortion Clinic,Activities, Clinic,Activity, Clinic,Ambulatory Care Facility,Ambulatory Health Center,Ambulatory Health Centers,Care Center, Urgent,Care Centers, Urgent,Care Clinic, Urgent,Care Clinics, Urgent,Center, Abortion,Center, Ambulatory Health,Center, Family Planning,Center, Urgent Care,Centers, Abortion,Centers, Ambulatory Health,Centers, Family Planning,Centers, Urgent Care,Clinic Activity,Clinic, Abortion,Clinic, Free-Standing,Clinic, Outpatient,Clinic, Urgent Care,Clinics, Abortion,Clinics, Free Standing,Clinics, Outpatient,Clinics, Urgent Care,Facilities, Ambulatory Care,Facility, Ambulatory Care,Family Planning Center,Free-Standing Clinic,Free-Standing Clinics,Health Center, Ambulatory,Urgent Care Center,Urgent Care Clinic
D001071	Appointments and Schedules	The different methods of scheduling patient visits, appointment systems, individual or group appointments, waiting times, waiting lists for hospitals, walk-in clinics, etc.	Patient Appointments,Patient Schedules,Schedules, Patient,Appointments,Schedules,Appointment,Appointment, Patient,Appointments, Patient,Patient Appointment,Patient Schedule,Schedule,Schedule, Patient,Schedules and Appointments
D012846	Singapore	Country of islands in Southeastern Asia, islands between Malaysia and Indonesia. The capital is Singapore.
D013997	Time Factors	Elements of limited time intervals, contributing to particular results or situations.	Time Series,Factor, Time,Time Factor
D014850	Waiting Lists	Prospective patient listings for appointments or treatments.	List, Waiting,Lists, Waiting,Waiting List
D017146	Models, Organizational	Theoretical representations and constructs that describe or explain the structure and hierarchy of relationships and interactions within or between formal organizational entities or informal social groups.	Organizational Models,Model, Organizational,Organizational Model
D017598	Efficiency, Organizational	The capacity of an organization, institution, or business to produce desired results with a minimum expenditure of energy, time, money, personnel, material, etc.	Efficiency, Administrative,Productivity, Organizational,Program Efficiency,Administrative Efficiency,Organizational Productivity,Efficiency, Program,Organizational Efficiency,Program Efficiencies