Research Article

Resource Allocation and Outpatient Appointment Scheduling Using Simulation Optimization

Table 3

Parameter values used in experiments from an ophthalmology clinic [1, 2].

Patients
 250 appointments per session
 4 patient classes and 8 paths (with details in Table 9)
 Distribution of visitors per patient = {0 (70%), 1 (23.3%), 2 (6.7%)}
Patient punctuality
 Probability of arrival status = {0.7 (early), 0.3 (late)}
 Empirical data on earliness (min)
  Patient class 1 to 3: {1, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 24, 30, 37, 47, 80, 121};
  Patient class 4: {13, 20, 21, 25, 27, 31, 32}
 Empirical data on tardiness (min)
  Patient class 1 to 3: {0, 6, 8, 8, 11, 16}
  Patient class 4: {3, 6, 30, 59}
Resources
 Doctors (), nurses (), educational video (TV)
 Available start time (in minute) = {30 for doctors, 0 otherwise}
 (Initial) allocation plan of resource units to procedures (Table 4)
 Skill set by resource unit (assumption in Table 6)
Procedures
 A total of 8 procedures
 Set of procedures, operating mode and capacity (single/batch) (Table 5)
 Procedure duration by patient class (Table 5)
 Movement time between successive procedures (Table 5)
Operating environment
 4.5 hours (or 270 min) of appointment session
 12 time blocks in appointment session
 Start time of time blocks (in minute) = {0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135, 150, 165}
Appointment schedule
 (Initial) distribution of appointments = {16, 41, 19, 38, 19, 20, 23, 19, 14, 15, 13, 13}
 A minimum of 6 appointments per time block