IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jcomop/v37y2019i1d10.1007_s10878-017-0216-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Online scheduling for outpatient services with heterogeneous patients and physicians

Author

Listed:
  • Huiqiao Su

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Guohua Wan

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Shan Wang

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Abstract

In outpatient services, it is critical to schedule patients for physicians to reduce both patients waiting and physicians overtime working. In this paper, we regard the problem as an online scheduling problem and based on analysis of a real data set from a big hospital in China, we develop a dynamic programming model to solve the problem. We propose a Policy Iteration Algorithm to find the optimal solution in the steady state, and obtain the structural properties of the policy. We conduct numerical experiments to compare the performance of the policy with that of the two policies used in practice by simulating various scenarios. The numerical results show that the policy has the best performance across all scenarios, especially when the system is heavily loaded. We also discuss the managerial implications of the study for practitioners. The model and solution method can be easily extended to multi-server case and can be applied to the general service scheduling problems with heterogeneous customers and service providers.

Suggested Citation

  • Huiqiao Su & Guohua Wan & Shan Wang, 2019. "Online scheduling for outpatient services with heterogeneous patients and physicians," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 123-149, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jcomop:v:37:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s10878-017-0216-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10878-017-0216-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10878-017-0216-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10878-017-0216-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Qingxia Kong & Chung-Yee Lee & Chung-Piaw Teo & Zhichao Zheng, 2013. "Scheduling Arrivals to a Stochastic Service Delivery System Using Copositive Cones," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(3), pages 711-726, June.
    2. Mehmet A. Begen & Maurice Queyranne, 2011. "Appointment Scheduling with Discrete Random Durations," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 36(2), pages 240-257, May.
    3. Mabel C. Chou & Hui Liu & Maurice Queyranne & David Simchi-Levi, 2006. "On the Asymptotic Optimality of a Simple On-Line Algorithm for the Stochastic Single-Machine Weighted Completion Time Problem and Its Extensions," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 54(3), pages 464-474, June.
    4. Qu, Xiuli & Peng, Yidong & Shi, Jing & LaGanga, Linda, 2015. "An MDP model for walk-in patient admission management in primary care clinics," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 303-320.
    5. Peter Kolesar, 1970. "A Markovian Model for Hospital Admission Scheduling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(6), pages 384-396, February.
    6. Edward J. Rising & Robert Baron & Barry Averill, 1973. "A Systems Analysis of a University-Health-Service Outpatient Clinic," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(5), pages 1030-1047, October.
    7. Nicole Megow & Marc Uetz & Tjark Vredeveld, 2006. "Models and Algorithms for Stochastic Online Scheduling," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 513-525, August.
    8. Bjorn P. Berg & Brian T. Denton, 2017. "Fast Approximation Methods for Online Scheduling of Outpatient Procedure Centers," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 631-644, November.
    9. Guido Kaandorp & Ger Koole, 2007. "Optimal outpatient appointment scheduling," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 217-229, September.
    10. Thomas Sloan, 2007. "Safety-cost trade-offs in medical device reuse: a Markov decision process model," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 81-93, February.
    11. Jing Li & Ming Dong & Yijiong Ren & Kaiqi Yin, 2015. "How patient compliance impacts the recommendations for colorectal cancer screening," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 920-937, November.
    12. Jonathan Patrick, 2012. "A Markov decision model for determining optimal outpatient scheduling," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 91-102, June.
    13. Refael Hassin & Sharon Mendel, 2008. "Scheduling Arrivals to Queues: A Single-Server Model with No-Shows," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(3), pages 565-572, March.
    14. Jae-Hyeon Ahn & John C. Hornberger, 1996. "Involving Patients in the Cadaveric Kidney Transplant Allocation Process: A Decision-Theoretic Perspective," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(5), pages 629-641, May.
    15. Renata Kopach & Po-Ching DeLaurentis & Mark Lawley & Kumar Muthuraman & Leyla Ozsen & Ron Rardin & Hong Wan & Paul Intrevado & Xiuli Qu & Deanna Willis, 2007. "Effects of clinical characteristics on successful open access scheduling," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 111-124, June.
    16. Song-Hee Kim & Ward Whitt, 2014. "Are Call Center and Hospital Arrivals Well Modeled by Nonhomogeneous Poisson Processes?," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 16(3), pages 464-480, July.
    17. Linda V. Green & Sergei Savin & Ben Wang, 2006. "Managing Patient Service in a Diagnostic Medical Facility," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 54(1), pages 11-25, February.
    18. Chuanpu Hu & William S. Lovejoy & Steven L. Shafer, 1996. "Comparison of Some Suboptimal Control Policies in Medical Drug Therapy," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(5), pages 696-709, October.
    19. Megow, N. & Vredeveld, T., 2006. "Approximation results for preemptive stochastic online scheduling," Research Memorandum 053, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. J. Behnamian & Z. Gharabaghli, 2023. "Multi-objective outpatient scheduling in health centers considering resource constraints and service quality: a robust optimization approach," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 1-35, March.
    2. Jing Fan & Hui Shi, 0. "A three-stage supply chain scheduling problem based on the nursing assistants’ daily work in a hospital," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-13.
    3. Jing Fan & Hui Shi, 2021. "A three-stage supply chain scheduling problem based on the nursing assistants’ daily work in a hospital," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 896-908, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahmadi-Javid, Amir & Jalali, Zahra & Klassen, Kenneth J, 2017. "Outpatient appointment systems in healthcare: A review of optimization studies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(1), pages 3-34.
    2. Christos Zacharias & Tallys Yunes, 2020. "Multimodularity in the Stochastic Appointment Scheduling Problem with Discrete Arrival Epochs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(2), pages 744-763, February.
    3. Shan Wang & Nan Liu & Guohua Wan, 2020. "Managing Appointment-Based Services in the Presence of Walk-in Customers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(2), pages 667-686, February.
    4. van Eekelen, Wouter, 2023. "Distributionally robust views on queues and related stochastic models," Other publications TiSEM 9b99fc05-9d68-48eb-ae8c-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Tugba Cayirli & Kum Khiong Yang & Ser Aik Quek, 2012. "A Universal Appointment Rule in the Presence of No‐Shows and Walk‐Ins," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 21(4), pages 682-697, July.
    6. Kuiper, Alex & de Mast, Jeroen & Mandjes, Michel, 2021. "The problem of appointment scheduling in outpatient clinics: A multiple case study of clinical practice," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Van-Anh Truong, 2015. "Optimal Advance Scheduling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(7), pages 1584-1597, July.
    8. Kemper, Benjamin & Klaassen, Chris A.J. & Mandjes, Michel, 2014. "Optimized appointment scheduling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 239(1), pages 243-255.
    9. Li Luo & Ying Zhou & Bernard T. Han & Jialing Li, 2019. "An optimization model to determine appointment scheduling window for an outpatient clinic with patient no-shows," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 68-84, March.
    10. Pan, Xingwei & Geng, Na & Xie, Xiaolan & Wen, Jing, 2020. "Managing appointments with waiting time targets and random walk-ins," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    11. Shenghai Zhou & Yichuan Ding & Woonghee Tim Huh & Guohua Wan, 2021. "Constant Job‐Allowance Policies for Appointment Scheduling: Performance Bounds and Numerical Analysis," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(7), pages 2211-2231, July.
    12. Katsumi Morikawa & Katsuhiko Takahashi & Daisuke Hirotani, 2018. "Performance evaluation of candidate appointment schedules using clearing functions," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 509-518, March.
    13. Shen, Zuo-Jun Max & Xie, Jingui & Zheng, Zhichao & Zhou, Han, 2023. "Dynamic scheduling with uncertain job types," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(3), pages 1047-1060.
    14. Namakshenas, Mohammad & Mazdeh, Mohammad Mahdavi & Braaksma, Aleida & Heydari, Mehdi, 2023. "Appointment scheduling for medical diagnostic centers considering time-sensitive pharmaceuticals: A dynamic robust optimization approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 305(3), pages 1018-1031.
    15. Paola Cappanera & Filippo Visintin & Carlo Banditori & Daniele Feo, 2019. "Evaluating the long-term effects of appointment scheduling policies in a magnetic resonance imaging setting," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 212-254, March.
    16. Dongyang Wang & Kumar Muthuraman & Douglas Morrice, 2019. "Coordinated Patient Appointment Scheduling for a Multistation Healthcare Network," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 67(3), pages 599-618, May.
    17. Qu, Xiuli & Peng, Yidong & Shi, Jing & LaGanga, Linda, 2015. "An MDP model for walk-in patient admission management in primary care clinics," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 303-320.
    18. Mahes, Roshan & Mandjes, Michel & Boon, Marko & Taylor, Peter, 2024. "Adaptive scheduling in service systems: A Dynamic programming approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(2), pages 605-626.
    19. Thu Nguyen & Appa Sivakumar & Stephen Graves, 2015. "A network flow approach for tactical resource planning in outpatient clinics," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 124-136, June.
    20. Jianzhe Luo & Vidyadhar G. Kulkarni & Serhan Ziya, 2012. "Appointment Scheduling Under Patient No-Shows and Service Interruptions," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(4), pages 670-684, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jcomop:v:37:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s10878-017-0216-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.