Dynamic Scheduling of Outpatient Appointments Under Patient No-Shows and Cancellations

Abstract

This paper develops a framework and proposes heuristic dynamic policies for scheduling patient appointments, taking into account the fact that patients may cancel or not show up for their appointments. In a simulation study that considers a model clinic, which is created using data obtained from an actual clinic, we find that the heuristics proposed outperform all the other benchmark policies, particularly when the patient load is high compared with the regular capacity. Supporting earlier findings in the literature, we find that the open access policy, a recently proposed popular scheduling paradigm that calls for “meeting today's demand today,” can be a reasonable choice when the patient load is relatively low.