Design a compact scheduling system for destination medical centers: A simulation-based study

This study focuses on the appointment scheduling for patients traveling from out-of-town to Destination Medical Center (DMC) for follow-up medical treatment. The scheduling system in this study is intended to address patient concern of waiting time which is considered as the time between multiple appointments in this study. Patient preference of day of appointment is solicited first. This compact scheduling system results in reducing patient lodging cost and increase patient satisfaction.;A discrete event simulation model is developed to test and illustrate the design of compact scheduling system. Patient average waiting duration is a measure to quantify the time difference between patient preferred day and scheduled day, which is a measure related to patient satisfaction. Analysis shows that the effect of number of blocked slots is significant on all performance measures. Mix of patient preference of day is identified as a significant factor for patient average waiting duration. More patients preferred earlier of the week leads to that the average time difference between patient preferred day and scheduled day increases. Mix of patient treatment length has significant effect on slots utilization. It is identified that as patient no-show probability increases, the clinic throughput, revenue and slots utilization decrease.