The Patient Patient: The Performance of Traditional versus Open‐Access Scheduling Policies
比较了传统预约和开放预约两种门诊调度策略，发现开放预约能服务更多患者，但传统预约因医生能更好控制加班而可能更盈利。
ABSTRACT We compare traditional and open‐access scheduling policies for outpatient medical practices in terms of the number of patients served and financial performance. Under a traditional scheduling policy, a patient schedules an appointment in advance and there is a significant possibility of patient no‐shows. In response, doctors overbook patients to reduce the idle time created by no‐shows. Under an open‐access scheduling policy, all appointments are scheduled the day of the appointment, thereby eliminating patient no‐shows but creating more randomness in the daily number of appointments. In contrast to earlier works, we consider the optimal average number of patients served and find that the open‐access policy may lead doctors to serve a greater number of patients but that the traditional policy may be more profitable by providing doctors more control over their schedule and ability to limit overtime.