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Outpatient scheduling with unpunctual patients and no-shows

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  • Deceuninck, Matthias
  • Fiems, Dieter
  • De Vuyst, Stijn

Abstract

We assess appointment scheduling strategies for outpatient services. To this end, we consider a fixed-length consultation session in which K patients have to be scheduled at predefined appointment times, but who may not be punctual. Their effective arrival time deviates from their appointment time by a stochastic unpunctuality time. We assume general, possibly distinct distributions for the patients’ consultation times as well as for their unpunctuality. The heterogeneity of the consultation times is motivated by patient classification: the schedule can be adapted to the patients’ characteristics. Our evaluation approach is based on a modified Lindley recursion in a discrete-time framework and obtains accurate predictions for the moments of the patient waiting times as well as the doctor’s idle times and overtime. This evaluation method is then included in a local search algorithm to provide general insights into appointment scheduling under unpunctual patients. Our results suggest that the proposed method obtains substantial cost reductions when patient classification is correctly exploited. Finally, it is shown that our analysis can also be used to determine optimal sequencing rules for patients who arrive out of turn.

Suggested Citation

  • Deceuninck, Matthias & Fiems, Dieter & De Vuyst, Stijn, 2018. "Outpatient scheduling with unpunctual patients and no-shows," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(1), pages 195-207.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:265:y:2018:i:1:p:195-207
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2017.07.006
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    Cited by:

    1. Jiang, Bowen & Tang, Jiafu & Yan, Chongjun, 2019. "A stochastic programming model for outpatient appointment scheduling considering unpunctuality," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 70-82.
    2. Shehadeh, Karmel S. & Cohn, Amy E.M. & Epelman, Marina A., 2019. "Analysis of models for the Stochastic Outpatient Procedure Scheduling Problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 279(3), pages 721-731.
    3. Wu, Xueqi & Zhou, Shenghai, 2022. "Sequencing and scheduling appointments on multiple servers with stochastic service durations and customer arrivals," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    4. T. Meersman & B. Maenhout, 2022. "Multi-objective optimisation for constructing cyclic appointment schedules for elective and urgent patients," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 312(2), pages 909-948, May.
    5. 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.
    6. Jiang, Bowen & Fan, Zhi-Ping, 2020. "Optimal allocation of shared parking slots considering parking unpunctuality under a platform-based management approach," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    7. Shehadeh, Karmel S. & Cohn, Amy E.M. & Jiang, Ruiwei, 2020. "A distributionally robust optimization approach for outpatient colonoscopy scheduling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 283(2), pages 549-561.
    8. Hesaraki, Alireza F. & Dellaert, Nico P. & de Kok, Ton, 2019. "Generating outpatient chemotherapy appointment templates with balanced flowtime and makespan," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 275(1), pages 304-318.
    9. Pan, Xingwei & Geng, Na & Xie, Xiaolan, 2021. "Appointment scheduling and real-time sequencing strategies for patient unpunctuality," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 295(1), pages 246-260.
    10. Karmel S. Shehadeh & Amy E. M. Cohn & Ruiwei Jiang, 2021. "Using stochastic programming to solve an outpatient appointment scheduling problem with random service and arrival times," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(1), pages 89-111, February.
    11. Oualid Jouini & Saif Benjaafar & Bingnan Lu & Siqiao Li & Benjamin Legros, 2022. "Appointment-driven queueing systems with non-punctual customers," Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 101(1), pages 1-56, June.
    12. Creemers, Stefan & Lambrecht, Marc R. & Beliën, Jeroen & Van den Broeke, Maud, 2021. "Evaluation of appointment scheduling rules: A multi-performance measurement approach," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).

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