215. Appointment Scheduling of Multiple Classes of Patients for a Diagnostic Medical Facility
Contributed abstract in session FB-5: (Multi)Appointment /2, stream Regular talks.
Friday, 11:00-12:30Room: Room S6
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | Simran Lakhani
|
| Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay | |
| 2. | Ashutosh Mahajan
|
| IEOR Department, IIT Bombay |
Abstract
We study appointment scheduling for a diagnostic facility within a resource-constrained, high-demand tertiary-care cancer hospital. For scheduling appointments, the patients are categorized based on their ability to pay into General and Private. They are further classified based on their treatment stage into New and Follow-up patients, thus giving a total of four categories. Due to high demand, patients experience high waiting times to get an appointment. The waiting periods are different for each category and quite high compared to usual. Generally, Private patients are prioritized over General patients, and New patients are preferred over Follow-ups as diagnostics facilities play a crucial role in planning treatment. The hospital follows certain rules for scheduling appointments for each category. We use simulation and queuing theory to study the arrival patterns of these patients, analyze existing schemes of scheduling patients, and examine the factors contributing to long wait times to book an appointment. We further model the impact of increasing resource capacity and managing the existing one by increasing the service rate.
Keywords
- (Multi) appointment scheduling
- Modelling and simulation
Status: accepted
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