Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Appointment Planning and Scheduling in Outpatient Procedure Centers

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Handbook of Healthcare System Scheduling

Part of the book series: International Series in Operations Research & Management Science ((ISOR,volume 168))

Abstract

This chapter provides a summary of the planning and scheduling decisions for outpatient procedure centers. A summary and background of outpatient procedure centers and their operations is provided along with the challenges faced by managers. Planning and scheduling decisions are discussed and categorized as either long-or short-term decisions. Examples and results are drawn from the literature along with important factors that influence planning and scheduling decisions. A summary of open challenges for the operations research community is presented.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adams L, Pawlik J, Forbes G (2004) Nonattendance at outpatient endoscopy. Endoscopy 36(5):402–404

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Augusto V, Xie X, Perdomo V (2010) Operating theatre scheduling with patient recovery in both operating rooms and recovery beds. Comput Ind Eng 58(2):231–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bailey N (1952) A study of queues and appointment systems in hospital out-patient departments, with special reference to waiting-times. J R Stat Soc Ser B (Methodol) 14(2):185–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Berg B, Denton B, Nelson H, Balasubramanian H, Rahman A, Bailey A, Lindor K (2010) A discrete event simulation model to evaluate operational performance of a colonoscopy suite. Med Decis Mak 30(3):380–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berg B, Denton B, Erdogan S, Rohleder T, Huschka T (2011) Optimal booking strategies for outpatient procedure centers. North Carolina State University working paper

    Google Scholar 

  • Blake J, Carter M (1997) Surgical process scheduling: a structured review. J Soc Health Syst 5(3):17–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Cardoen B, Demeulemeester E, Beliën J (2010) Operating room planning and scheduling: A literature review. Eur J Oper Res 201(3):921–932

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cayirli T, Veral E (2003) Outpatient scheduling in health care: A review of literature. Prod Oper Manag 12(4):519–549

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cayirli T, Veral E, Rosen H (2006) Designing appointment scheduling systems for ambulatory care services. Health Care Manag Sci 9(1):47–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cullen K, Hall M, Golosinskiy A (2009) Ambulatory surgery in the united states, 2006. Natl Health Stat R (11)

    Google Scholar 

  • Denton B, Viapiano J, Vogl A (2007) Optimization of surgery sequencing and scheduling decisions under uncertainty. Health Care Manag Sci 10(1):13–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dexter F, Traub R (2002) How to schedule elective surgical cases into specific operating rooms to maximize the efficiency of use of operating room time. Anesth Analg 94(4):933–942

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dexter F, Macario A, Traub R (1999) Which algorithm for scheduling add-on elective cases maximizes operating room utilization?: Use of bin packing algorithms and fuzzy constraints in operating room management. Anesthesiology 91(5):1491–1500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dexter F, Dexter E, Masursky D, Nussmeier N (2008) Systematic review of general thoracic surgery articles to identify predictors of operating room case durations. Anesth Analg 106(4):1232–1241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dexter F, Birchansky L, Bernstein J, Wachtel R (2009) Case scheduling preferences of one surgeon’s cataract surgery patients. Anesth Analg 108(2):579–582

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein R, Dexter F (2000) Economic analysis of linking operating room scheduling and hospital material management information systems for just-in-time inventory control. Anesth Analg 91(2):337–343

    Google Scholar 

  • Erdogan S, Denton B (2011) Dynamic appointment scheduling with uncertain demand. INFORMS J Comput (in press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerchak Y, Gupta D, Henig M (1996) Reservation planning for elective surgery under uncertain demand for emergency surgery. Manag Sci 42(3):321–334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guerriero F, Guido R (2011) Operational research in the management of the operating theatre: a survey. Health Care Manag Sci 14(1):89–114

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gul S, Denton B, Fowler J, Huschka T (2011) Bi-criteria scheduling of surgical services for an outpatient procedure center. Prod Oper Manag 20(3):406–417

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta D (2007) Surgical suites’ operations management. Prod Oper Manag 16(6):689–700

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall N, Sriskandarajah C (1996) A survey of machine scheduling problems with blocking and no-wait in process. Oper Res 44(3):510–525

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ho C, Lau H (1992) Minimizing total cost in scheduling outpatient appointments. Manag Sci 38(12):1750–1764

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huschka T, Denton B, Gul S, Fowler J (2007) Bi-criteria evaluation of an outpatient procedure center via simulation. In: Proceedings of the 39th conference on Winter simulation: 40 years! The best is yet to come, IEEE Press, pp 1510–1518

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu N, Ziya S, Kulkarni V (2010) Dynamic scheduling of outpatient appointments under patient no-shows and cancellations. Manuf Serv Oper Manag 12(2):347–364

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcon E, Dexter F (2006) Impact of surgical sequencing on post anesthesia care unit staffing. Health Care Manag Sci 9(1):87–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray M, Berwick D (2003) Advanced access. J Am Med Assoc 289(8):1035–1040

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muthuraman K, Lawley M (2008) A stochastic overbooking model for outpatient clinical scheduling with no-shows. IIE Trans 40(9):820–837

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick J, Puterman M, Queyranne M (2008) Dynamic multi-priority patient scheduling for a diagnostic resource. Oper Res 56(6):1507–1525

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson L, Chen R (2003) Scheduling doctors’ appointments: optimal and empirically-based heuristic policies. IIE Trans 35(3):295–307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaer G, Koechli O, Haller U (1995) Single-use versus reusable laparoscopic surgical instruments: a comparative cost analysis. Am J Obstet Gynecol 173(6):1812–1815

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoenmeyr T, Dunn P, Gamarnik D, Levi R, Berger D, Daily B, Levine W, Sandberg W (2009) A model for understanding the impacts of demand and capacity on waiting time to enter a congested recovery room. Anesthesiology 110(6):1293–1304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sola-vera J, Sáez J, Laveda R, Girona E, Fegarcía sepulcre M, Cuesta A, Vázquez N, Uceda F, Pérez E, Sillero C (2008) Factors associated with non-attendance at outpatient endoscopy. Scand J Gastroenterol 43(2):202–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strum D, May J, Vargas L (2000) Modeling the uncertainty of surgical procedure times: Comparison of log-normal and normal models. Anesthesiology 92(4):1160–1167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou J, Dexter F (1998) Method to assist in the scheduling of add-on surgical cases-upper prediction bounds for surgical case durations based on the log-normal distribution. Anesthesiology 89(5):1228–1232

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This project was funded in part by the National Science Foundation under grant CMMI-0844511.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Bjorn Berg & Brian T. Denton

Authors
  1. Bjorn Berg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Brian T. Denton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bjorn Berg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Viterbi School of Engineering, Dept. Industrial & Systems Engineering, University of Southern California, McClintock Ave. 3715, Los Angeles, 90089-0193, California, USA

    Randolph Hall

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Berg, B., Denton, B.T. (2012). Appointment Planning and Scheduling in Outpatient Procedure Centers. In: Hall, R. (eds) Handbook of Healthcare System Scheduling. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 168. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1734-7_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation