IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jomega/v98y2021ics0305048318311277.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The problem of appointment scheduling in outpatient clinics: A multiple case study of clinical practice

Author

Listed:
  • Kuiper, Alex
  • de Mast, Jeroen
  • Mandjes, Michel

Abstract

Operations research and management science have produced many algorithms or rules for appointment scheduling, approaching that task as a mathematical optimization problem. It is, however, not sufficiently clear to what extent such problem definitions capture the objectives and limitations of appointment scheduling in real healthcare applications. This paper aims to reconstruct the structure of the problem faced by outpatient clinics by applying a multiple-case-study approach, based on a research model developed from operations-management theory, followed up by workshops. This study therefore breaks new ground by linking the problem of appointment scheduling as rendered by the operations-research literature to theory in operations management and practice in the field.

Suggested Citation

  • 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).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:98:y:2021:i:c:s0305048318311277
    DOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2019.102122
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305048318311277
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.omega.2019.102122?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. Guido Kaandorp & Ger Koole, 2007. "Optimal outpatient appointment scheduling," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 217-229, September.
    2. Kuiper, Alex & Mandjes, Michel, 2015. "Appointment scheduling in tandem-type service systems," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 57(PB), pages 145-156.
    3. Chrwan-Jyh Ho & Hon-Shiang Lau, 1992. "Minimizing Total Cost in Scheduling Outpatient Appointments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(12), pages 1750-1764, December.
    4. Mehmet A. Begen & Maurice Queyranne, 2011. "Appointment Scheduling with Discrete Random Durations," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 36(2), pages 240-257, May.
    5. Christos Zacharias & Mor Armony, 2017. "Joint Panel Sizing and Appointment Scheduling in Outpatient Care," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(11), pages 3978-3997, November.
    6. A. Soriano, 1966. "Comparison of Two Scheduling Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 14(3), pages 388-397, June.
    7. K J Glowacka & R M Henry & J H May, 2009. "A hybrid data mining/simulation approach for modelling outpatient no-shows in clinic scheduling," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(8), pages 1056-1068, August.
    8. Ackoff, Russell L. & Vergara, Elsa, 1981. "Creativity in problem solving and planning: a review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, May.
    9. Brant E. Fries & Vijay P. Marathe, 1981. "Determination of Optimal Variable-Sized Multiple-Block Appointment Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 324-345, April.
    10. 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.
    11. Kum Khiong Yang & Mun Ling Lau & Ser Aik Quek, 1998. "A new appointment rule for a single‐server, multiple‐customer service system," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(3), pages 313-326, April.
    12. Peter M. Vanden Bosch & Dennis C. Dietz & John R. Simeoni, 1999. "Scheduling customer arrivals to a stochastic service system," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(5), pages 549-559, August.
    13. K.J. Klassen & T.R. Rohleder, 2001. "Combining Operations and Marketing to Manage Capacity and Demand in Services," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 1-30, April.
    14. Brian Denton & James Viapiano & Andrea Vogl, 2007. "Optimization of surgery sequencing and scheduling decisions under uncertainty," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 13-24, February.
    15. Jillian A. Berry Jaeker & Anita L. Tucker, 2017. "Past the Point of Speeding Up: The Negative Effects of Workload Saturation on Efficiency and Patient Severity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(4), pages 1042-1062, April.
    16. Soltani, Mohamad & Samorani, Michele & Kolfal, Bora, 2019. "Appointment scheduling with multiple providers and stochastic service times," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 277(2), pages 667-683.
    17. Christos Zacharias & Michael Pinedo, 2017. "Managing Customer Arrivals in Service Systems with Multiple Identical Servers," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 639-656, October.
    18. 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.
    19. Ho-Yin Mak & Ying Rong & Jiawei Zhang, 2015. "Appointment Scheduling with Limited Distributional Information," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(2), pages 316-334, February.
    20. Rohleder, Thomas R. & Klassen, Kenneth J., 2000. "Using client-variance information to improve dynamic appointment scheduling performance," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 293-302, June.
    21. Ruiwei Jiang & Siqian Shen & Yiling Zhang, 2017. "Integer Programming Approaches for Appointment Scheduling with Random No-Shows and Service Durations," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 65(6), pages 1638-1656, December.
    22. 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.
    23. 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.
    24. Ho, Chrwan-Jyh & Lau, Hon-Shiang, 1999. "Evaluating the impact of operating conditions on the performance of appointment scheduling rules in service systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(3), pages 542-553, February.
    25. Linda V. Green & Sergei Savin, 2008. "Reducing Delays for Medical Appointments: A Queueing Approach," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(6), pages 1526-1538, December.
    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. Matthias Grot & Simon Kugai & Lukas Degen & Isabel Wiemer & Brigitte Werners & Birgitta M. Weltermann, 2023. "Small Changes in Patient Arrival and Consultation Times Have Large Effects on Patients’ Waiting Times: Simulation Analyses for Primary Care," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-11, January.
    2. Nossack, Jenny, 2022. "Therapy scheduling and therapy planning at hospitals," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).

    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. 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).
    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. Soltani, Mohamad & Samorani, Michele & Kolfal, Bora, 2019. "Appointment scheduling with multiple providers and stochastic service times," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 277(2), pages 667-683.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Alex Kuiper & Robert H. Lee, 2022. "Appointment Scheduling for Multiple Servers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(10), pages 7422-7440, October.
    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. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Wu, Xueqi & Zhou, Shenghai, 2022. "Sequencing and scheduling appointments on multiple servers with stochastic service durations and customer arrivals," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    12. Ruiwei Jiang & Siqian Shen & Yiling Zhang, 2017. "Integer Programming Approaches for Appointment Scheduling with Random No-Shows and Service Durations," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 65(6), pages 1638-1656, December.
    13. Kuiper, Alex & Mandjes, Michel, 2015. "Appointment scheduling in tandem-type service systems," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 57(PB), pages 145-156.
    14. Xiuli Qu & Yidong Peng & Nan Kong & Jing Shi, 2013. "A two-phase approach to scheduling multi-category outpatient appointments – A case study of a women’s clinic," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 197-216, September.
    15. 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.
    16. Yu Fu & Amarnath Banerjee, 2021. "A Stochastic Programming Model for Service Scheduling with Uncertain Demand: an Application in Open-Access Clinic Scheduling," SN Operations Research Forum, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 1-32, September.
    17. 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.
    18. Cai, Yun & Song, Haiqing & Wang, Shan, 2024. "Managing appointment-based services with electronic visits," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 315(3), pages 863-878.
    19. Avishai Mandelbaum & Petar Momčilović & Nikolaos Trichakis & Sarah Kadish & Ryan Leib & Craig A. Bunnell, 2020. "Data-Driven Appointment-Scheduling Under Uncertainty: The Case of an Infusion Unit in a Cancer Center," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(1), pages 243-270, January.
    20. Wen-Ya Wang & Diwakar Gupta, 2011. "Adaptive Appointment Systems with Patient Preferences," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 373-389, July.

    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:eee:jomega:v:98:y:2021:i:c:s0305048318311277. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/375/description#description .

    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.