title: Optimal outpatient appointment scheduling.
abstract: In this paper optimal outpatient appointment scheduling is studied. A local search procedure is derived that converges to the optimal schedule with a weighted average of expected waiting times of patients, idle time of the doctor and tardiness (lateness) as objective. No-shows are allowed to happen. For certain combinations of parameters the well-known Bailey-Welch rule is found to be the optimal appointment schedule.
authors: Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Guido C
authors: GC
authors: Kaandorp
authors: Ger
authors: G
authors: Koole
mesh_terms: D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009819:Office Visits; D010045:Outpatients; D010820:Physicians; D013997:Time Factors; D017748:Time Management / Q000458:organization & administration
references: Lancet. 1952 May 31;1(6718):1105-8
references: 14928595