Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jan 15;10(1):164.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare10010164.

Using Simulation Optimization to Solve Patient Appointment Scheduling and Examination Room Assignment Problems for Patients Undergoing Ultrasound Examination

Ping-Shun Chen  1 , Gary Yu-Hsin Chen  2 , Li-Wen Liu  1 , Ching-Ping Zheng  1 , Wen-Tso Huang  3
Affiliations

Using Simulation Optimization to Solve Patient Appointment Scheduling and Examination Room Assignment Problems for Patients Undergoing Ultrasound Examination

Ping-Shun Chen et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

This study investigates patient appointment scheduling and examination room assignment problems involving patients who undergo ultrasound examination with considerations of multiple examination rooms, multiple types of patients, multiple body parts to be examined, and special restrictions. Following are the recommended time intervals based on the findings of three scenarios in this study: In Scenario 1, the time interval recommended for patients' arrival at the radiology department on the day of the examination is 18 min. In Scenario 2, it is best to assign patients to examination rooms based on weighted cumulative examination points. In Scenario 3, we recommend that three outpatients come to the radiology department every 18 min to undergo ultrasound examinations; the number of inpatients and emergency patients arriving for ultrasound examination is consistent with the original time interval distribution. Simulation optimization may provide solutions to the problems of appointment scheduling and examination room assignment problems to balance the workload of radiological technologists, maintain high equipment utilization rates, and reduce waiting times for patients undergoing ultrasound examination.

Keywords: patient appointment scheduling; radiological technologist; simulation optimization; system simulation; ultrasound examination; workload balance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The flowchart of patient’s appointment procedure at the radiology department.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The flowchart of patient-examination room assignment at the radiology department.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The warm-up period of the simulation model in this study.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(a) Simulation of the logic for assigning patients to the ultrasound examination rooms. (b) Simulation of the ultrasound examination processes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(a) Simulation of the logic for assigning patients to the ultrasound examination rooms. (b) Simulation of the ultrasound examination processes.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The results of optimization performed by the simulation model at different time intervals.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The best four feasible solutions after optimization.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Chen P.S., Robielos R.A.C., Palana P.K.V.C., Valencia P.L.L., Chen G.Y.H. Scheduling patients’ appointments: Allocation of healthcare service using simulation optimization. J. Healthc. Eng. 2015;6:259–280. doi: 10.1260/2040-2295.6.2.259. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chen P.-S., Yang K.-h., Robielos R.A.C., Cancino R.A.C., Dizon L.A.M. Patient referral mechanisms by using simulation optimization. Simul. Model. Pract. Theory. 2016;61:14–27. doi: 10.1016/j.simpat.2015.11.004. - DOI
    1. Issabakhsh M., Lee S., Kang H.J. Scheduling patient appointment in an infusion center: A mixed integer robust optimization approach. Health Care Manag. Sci. 2021;24:117–139. doi: 10.1007/s10729-020-09519-z. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sun J., Lin Q., Zhao P.Y., Zhang Q.Y., Xu K., Chen H.Y., Hu C.J., Stuntz M., Li H., Liu Y.L. Reducing waiting time and raising outpatient satisfaction in a Chinese public tertiary general hospital-an interrupted time series study. BMC Public Health. 2017;17:668. doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4667-z. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sun Y.F., Raghavan U.N., Vaze V., Hall C.S., Doyle P., Richard S.S., Wald C. Stochastic programming for outpatient scheduling with flexible inpatient exam accommodation. Health Care Manag. Sci. 2021;24:460–481. doi: 10.1007/s10729-020-09527-z. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources