A hybrid simulation and genetic algorithm approach to determine the optimal scheduling templates for open access clinics admitting walk-in patients

An MDP model for walk-in patient admission management in primary care clinics

“…Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, the results are not applicable to the clinics actually admit walk-in patients selectively. Peng et al (2014) investigate how to optimally allocate appointment slots to pre-scheduled appointments, sameday appointments and walk-in patients in primary-care clinics. An approach integrating discrete event simulation and genetic algorithm is proposed to find heuristic optimal appointment schedules.…”

Bloody fast blood collection

“…Peng et al [151] present a hybrid simulation and genetic algorithm to develop scheduling templates for clinics, if walk-in patients are also allowed. Their method is able to reduce cost significantly.…”

Organizing integrated processes in cancer care

“…We consider the optimal schedule to be a schedule that minimizes a cost function, considering the expected multi-disciplinary pa-Chapter 6. SIP for multi-disciplinary outpatient clinic planning tient waiting time between the two multi-disciplinary appointments, the clinician overtime, and the clinician idle time, similar to the cost function considered in [233]. The cost function is influenced by the number of regular patients to be scheduled in the clinicians' schedules and their timing, as well as by the sequence in which multi-disciplinary patients are seen by the NPs.…”

“…Since most authors evaluate multiple appointment sequences by a simulation study (e.g., [158,322]), only little work is performed on the optimization of these blueprint schedules. Peng et al [233] optimize the number and position of open access and regular appointments by developing a blueprint schedule that minimizes the patient waiting time and clinician idle and overtime. Due to the high problem complexity of real life cases, their Genetic…”