IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i9p3349-d170801.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimizing Daily Service Scheduling for Medical Diagnostic Equipment Considering Patient Satisfaction and Hospital Revenue

Author

Listed:
  • Gang Du

    (School of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Management, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China)

  • Xinyue Li

    (School of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Management, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China)

  • Hui Hu

    (School of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Management, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China)

  • Xiaoling Ouyang

    (Department of Economics, School of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China)

Abstract

Under the background of the unbalanced supply and demand of medical diagnostic equipment and rising health care costs, this study aims to optimize the service scheduling for medical diagnostic equipment so as to improve patient satisfaction by ensuring the equipment utilization rate and hospital revenue. The finite horizon Markov Decision Process (MDP) was adopted to solve this problem. On the basis of field research, we divided patients into four categories: emergency patients, inpatients, appointed outpatients, and the randomly arrived outpatients according to the severity of illness and appointment situations. In the construction of the MDP model, we considered the possibility of cancellation (no-show patients) in scheduling optimization. Combined with the benefits and costs related to patient satisfaction, based on the value iteration algorithm, we took patient satisfaction and hospital revenue as the objective functions. Results indicated that, compared with the current scheduling strategy, the integrated strategy proposed in this study has a better performance, which could maintain the sustainable usage rate of large medical resources and patient satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Gang Du & Xinyue Li & Hui Hu & Xiaoling Ouyang, 2018. "Optimizing Daily Service Scheduling for Medical Diagnostic Equipment Considering Patient Satisfaction and Hospital Revenue," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-23, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:9:p:3349-:d:170801
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3349/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3349/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hyun-Rok Lee & Taesik Lee, 2018. "Markov decision process model for patient admission decision at an emergency department under a surge demand," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 98-122, June.
    2. Guido Kaandorp & Ger Koole, 2007. "Optimal outpatient appointment scheduling," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 217-229, September.
    3. 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.
    4. Yan Ni & Ke Wang & Lindu Zhao, 2017. "A Markov decision process model of allocating emergency medical resource among multi-priority injuries," International Journal of Mathematics in Operational Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17.
    5. Chrwan-Jyh Ho & Hon-Shiang Lau, 1992. "Minimizing Total Cost in Scheduling Outpatient Appointments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(12), pages 1750-1764, December.
    6. Christiane Barz & Kumar Rajaram, 2015. "Elective Patient Admission and Scheduling under Multiple Resource Constraints," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 24(12), pages 1907-1930, December.
    7. Geng, Na & Xie, Xiaolan, 2012. "Optimizing contracted resource capacity with two advance cancelation modes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(3), pages 501-512.
    8. Adam Diamant & Joseph Milner & Fayez Quereshy, 2018. "Dynamic Patient Scheduling for Multi†Appointment Health Care Programs," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 27(1), pages 58-79, January.
    9. Ridvan Gedik & Shengfan Zhang & Chase Rainwater, 2017. "Strategic level proton therapy patient admission planning: a Markov decision process modeling approach," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 286-302, June.
    10. Sauré, Antoine & Patrick, Jonathan & Tyldesley, Scott & Puterman, Martin L., 2012. "Dynamic multi-appointment patient scheduling for radiation therapy," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(2), pages 573-584.
    11. Jonathan Patrick & Martin L. Puterman & Maurice Queyranne, 2008. "Dynamic Multipriority Patient Scheduling for a Diagnostic Resource," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(6), pages 1507-1525, December.
    12. Lawrence W. Robinson & Rachel R. Chen, 2010. "A Comparison of Traditional and Open-Access Policies for Appointment Scheduling," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 330-346, June.
    13. Astaraky, Davood & Patrick, Jonathan, 2015. "A simulation based approximate dynamic programming approach to multi-class, multi-resource surgical scheduling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 245(1), pages 309-319.
    14. Wen-Ya Wang & Diwakar Gupta, 2011. "Adaptive Appointment Systems with Patient Preferences," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 373-389, July.
    15. 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.
    16. Diwakar Gupta & Lei Wang, 2008. "Revenue Management for a Primary-Care Clinic in the Presence of Patient Choice," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(3), pages 576-592, June.
    17. Gang Du & Xi Liang & Chuanwang Sun, 2017. "Scheduling Optimization of Home Health Care Service Considering Patients’ Priorities and Time Windows," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-22, February.
    18. Norina Szander & Lorenzo Ros-McDonnell & María Victoria De-la-Fuente-Aragón & Robert Vodopivec, 2018. "Sustainable Urban Homecare Delivery with Different Means of Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-12, February.
    19. Xiang Ma & Antoine Sauré & Martin L. Puterman & Marianne Taylor & Scott Tyldesley, 2016. "Capacity planning and appointment scheduling for new patient oncology consults," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 347-361, December.
    20. Yasin Gocgun & Martin Puterman, 2014. "Dynamic scheduling with due dates and time windows: an application to chemotherapy patient appointment booking," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 60-76, March.
    21. J Patrick & M L Puterman, 2007. "Improving resource utilization for diagnostic services through flexible inpatient scheduling: A method for improving resource utilization," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 58(2), pages 235-245, February.
    22. Lu, Yuwei & Xie, Xiaolan & Jiang, Zhibin, 2018. "Dynamic appointment scheduling with wait-dependent abandonment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(3), pages 975-984.
    23. Chongjun Yan & Jiafu Tang & Bowen Jiang & Richard Y.K. Fung, 2015. "Sequential appointment scheduling considering patient choice and service fairness," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(24), pages 7376-7395, December.
    24. Linda V. Green & Sergei Savin, 2008. "Reducing Delays for Medical Appointments: A Queueing Approach," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(6), pages 1526-1538, December.
    25. Geng, Na & Xie, Xiaolan & Jiang, Zhibin, 2013. "Implementation strategies of a contract-based MRI examination reservation process for stroke patients," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 231(2), pages 371-380.
    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. Kadir Kaan Göncü & Onur Çetin, 2022. "A Decision Model for Supplier Selection Criteria in Healthcare Enterprises with Dematel ANP Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-16, October.

    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. 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.
    3. Tugba Cayirli & Pinar Dursun & Evrim D. Gunes, 2019. "An integrated analysis of capacity allocation and patient scheduling in presence of seasonal walk-ins," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 524-561, June.
    4. 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.
    5. Adam Diamant, 2021. "Dynamic multistage scheduling for patient-centered care plans," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 827-844, December.
    6. Aditya Shetty & Harry Groenevelt & Vera Tilson, 2023. "Intraday dynamic rescheduling under patient no-shows," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 583-598, September.
    7. Pan, Xingwei & Geng, Na & Xie, Xiaolan & Wen, Jing, 2020. "Managing appointments with waiting time targets and random walk-ins," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    8. 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.
    9. Van-Anh Truong, 2015. "Optimal Advance Scheduling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(7), pages 1584-1597, July.
    10. Liping Zhou & Na Geng & Zhibin Jiang & Shan Jiang, 2022. "Integrated Multiresource Capacity Planning and Multitype Patient Scheduling," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 129-149, January.
    11. Dogru, Ali K. & Melouk, Sharif H., 2019. "Adaptive appointment scheduling for patient-centered medical homes," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 166-181.
    12. Na Geng & Letian Chen & Ran Liu & Yanhong Zhu, 2017. "Optimal patient assignment for W queueing network in a diagnostic facility setting," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(19), pages 5609-5631, October.
    13. Wen-Ya Wang & Diwakar Gupta, 2011. "Adaptive Appointment Systems with Patient Preferences," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 373-389, July.
    14. 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.
    15. Esmaeil Keyvanshokooh & Pooyan Kazemian & Mohammad Fattahi & Mark P. Van Oyen, 2022. "Coordinated and Priority‐Based Surgical Care: An Integrated Distributionally Robust Stochastic Optimization Approach," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(4), pages 1510-1535, April.
    16. Kazim Topuz & Timothy L. Urban & Robert A. Russell & Mehmet B. Yildirim, 2024. "Decision support system for appointment scheduling and overbooking under patient no-show behavior," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 342(1), pages 845-873, November.
    17. Seokjun Youn & H. Neil Geismar & Michael Pinedo, 2022. "Planning and scheduling in healthcare for better care coordination: Current understanding, trending topics, and future opportunities," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(12), pages 4407-4423, December.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:9:p:3349-:d:170801. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.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.