The impact of conflicting interest on the choice of an appointments system

The paper considers the scheduling of appointments consisting of two parts (labelled diagnosis and treatment), where the diagnosis yields information about the time required to perform a treatment. A simple model is used to illustrate how the choice of a scheduling procedure (whether or not separate appointments should be made for diagnosis and treatment) depends on the relative magnitude of the set-up cost and the incentives of the customers. The paper shows how the customer’s inability to commit to arriving on time can induce the scheduler to select a scheduling procedure which makes both the scheduler and the customer worse off.