A novel and efficient real-time sequencing strategy for appointment scheduling with unpunctual patients

Chao Li, Zhi Yang, Fajun Yang () and Feng Wang
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Chao Li: Hunan University
Zhi Yang: Hunan University
Fajun Yang: Shanghai University
Feng Wang: Hunan University

Journal of Scheduling, 2024, vol. 27, issue 2, No 2, 135-149

Abstract: Abstract No-shows and non-punctual appointments have always been uncertain factors faced by managers of service-oriented enterprises and institutions, which usually lead to a low utilization rate of resources and a rapid decline in service satisfaction. Taking clinics as an example, this paper proposes a novel and efficient real-time sequencing strategy to minimize the cost associated with patient waiting time, provider idle time and overtime considering no-shows and unpunctuality. Four types of patient waiting time are considered for the first time, based on which the developed real-time sequencing strategy is used for scheduling the waiting patients when the provider becomes idle. Then, a biased random-key genetic algorithm is adopted to determine the number of patients on appointment slots and the length of each appointment slot. Extensive computational experiments show that the derived real-time sequencing strategy achieves a significant cost reduction compared with the famous FCFS (first come first served) and the state-of-art LAR (the larger of appointment time and real arrival time) rules.

Keywords: Service management; Appointment scheduling; No-show; Unpunctuality; Genetic algorithm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10951-023-00802-9

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