Effective cancellation policy to reduce the negative impact of patient no-show

Effective cancellation policy to reduce the negative impact of patient no-show

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Article ID: iaor2014473
Volume: 65
Issue: 5
Start Page Number: 605
End Page Number: 615
Publication Date: May 2014
Journal: Journal of the Operational Research Society
Authors: ,
Keywords: simulation: applications
Abstract:

The problem of patient no‐show in outpatient delivery systems has been a long recognized issue. The negative impacts include underutilized medical resources, increased healthcare costs, decreased access to care, and reduced clinic efficiency and provider productivity. Many clinics have cancellation policies of asking their patients to cancel 24 or 48h in advance. However, there is no logical or mathematical basis for such a policy. The objective is to develop an effective cancellation policy that accounts for current no‐show rates, the clinic's flow, and its fill rates to minimize the cost of patient wait time, physician idle time, and overtime. A simulation approach is presented to determine the hours required for patients to call in advance for cancelling appointments. The findings indicate that when fill rates are low and no‐show probabilities are high, the time required for patients to cancel appointments needs to increase in order to achieve the goal of being cost‐effective.

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