Appointment Scheduling In Health Care Clinics

Linda R. LaGanga

Director of Quality Systems
Mental Health Center of Denver
4141 East Dickenson Place
Denver , CO 80222


 Linda.LaGanga@Colorado.edu
Phone: 303.504.6665
FAX: 303-757-5245

Stephen R. Lawrence

Assoc. Prof. of Operations Management
Leeds School of Business
University of Colorado
419 UCB
Boulder , CO   80309-0419

Stephen.Lawrence@Colorado.edu
Phone: 303.492.4351
FAX: 303-492-5962

 

 

We all use health care services and most of us have had memorable experiences (often negative) when the scheduling and service delivery process did not meet expectations.  From the perspective of a clinic patient, it is hard to understand why we must wait for service, sometimes well past our scheduled appointment time.  From the perspective of a clinic provider (physician, psychologist, etc.), it is difficult to understand and cope with the fact that many patients do not appear for long-scheduled appointments (e.g., are “no-shows”).  To reconcile these two legitimate perspectives, our research on appointment scheduling and overbooking attempts to identify and develop effective scheduling policies that simultaneously balance the interests of patients, providers, and clinics.

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (DSI 2009). Service Appointment Scheduling with Walk-In, Short-term, and Traditional Scheduling, Decision Sciences Annual Conference, New Orleans, November 15, 2009.

o   Conference Presentation

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (INFORMS 2009). Appointment Scheduling with Variable Service Times. INFORMS Annual Conference, San Diego, October 14, 2009.

o   Conference Presentation

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (MAYO 2009). Lean Options for Walk-In, Open Access, and Traditional Appointment Scheduling in Outpatient Health Care Clinic. Mayo Clinic Conference on Systems Engineering & Operations Research in Health Care. Rochester MN, August 17, 2009.

o   Conference Presentation

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (POMS 2009).  Comparing Walk-In, Open Access, and Traditional Appointment Scheduling in Outpatient Health Care Clinics. Production and Operations Management Annual Meeting, Orlando FL, May 3, 2009.

o    Conference presentation

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (POMS 2009).  Increasing Access to Healthcare Services through Service Time Process Improvements.  Production and Operations Management Annual Meeting, Orlando FL, May 2, 2009.

o    Conference proceedings paper

o    Conference presentation

 

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (DSI 2008). Clinic No-Shows and Overbooking: Reflections and New Directions in Appointment Yield Management.  Baltimore, MD, November 25, 2008.

o    Conference proceedings paper

o    Conference presentation

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (INFORMS 2008b). Demand Management in Health Care Clinics with Variable Service Times. INFORMS Annual Meeting, Washington DC, October 13, 2008.

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (INFORMS 2008a). Yield Management in Health Care Clinics with Open Access Scheduling. INFORMS Annual Meeting, Washington DC, October 13, 2008.

o    Conference presentation

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (EurOMA 2008). Yield Management in Health Care Clinics with Walk-In Traffic. EurOMA Annual Conference, Groningen NL, June 2008.

o    Conference proceedings paper

o    Conference presentation

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (WP 2008). Yield Management in Health Care Clinics to Improve Patient Service and Clinic Performance, working paper, Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO.  In review.

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (INFORMS 2007), An Appointment Overbooking Model to Improve Client Access and Provider Productivity, Proceedings of the New Challenges in Service Operations, POMS College of Service Operations and EurOMA, London Business School, London UK, July 12, 2007.

o    Conference proceedings paper

§  Recipient of “Highly Commended” paper award

o    Presentation: INFORMS Annual Conference, Seattle WA, November 7, 2007.

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (DSI 2007). Appointment Scheduling with Overbooking toMitigate Productivity Loss from No-Shows, Proceedings of the Decision Sciences Institute Annual Meeting, Phoenix AZ, November 14, 2007.

o    Conference proceedings paper

o    Presentation 

 

·         LaGanga & Lawrence (DSJ 2007). “Clinic Overbooking to Improve Patient Access and Increase Provider Productivity,” Decision Sciences 38(2), May, 251–276.

o    Recipient of "2007 Best Paper Award" from the Decision Sciences editorial staff

o    Presentation: Instituto de Empresa , Madrid , Spain , October 2006.