Sequential clinical scheduling with service criteria

This study investigates sequential appointment scheduling with service criteria. It uses a constraint-based approach with service criteria bounded in a constraint set in contrast to the more typical weighted linear objective function. Properties are derived and a sequential scheduling algorithm is developed. Fairness properties of generated schedules are considered in detail, where fairness is the uniformity of performance across patients. New unfairness measures are proposed and used to capture the inequity among patients assigned to different slots. Other criteria such as expectation and variance of patient waiting time, queue length, and overtime are also considered. The fairness/revenue tradeoff is investigated as is the flexibility of the constraint-based approach in handling unavailable time periods.

► We consider sequential appointment scheduling problem with heterogeneous no-shows. ► We propose fairness measures to minimize the inequity among patients assigned to different slots. ► We propose a constraint-based approach that can handle service criteria and provider unavailability constraints. ► We analytically derive expectation and variance of overtime, patient waiting time, queue length, and number of patients in the system at each slot.