Simran Lakhani, PhD scholar of IEOR, presented her work (co-authored with Prof Ashutosh Mahajan and Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) doctors) "Online and Offline Appointment Scheduling Under Uncertain Service Times" at the POMS India International Conference 2023 held at XLRI Jamshedpur from 04-06 Dec,23.
Abstract: The study addresses the appointment scheduling challenges in a resource-constrained, high-demand hospital scanning facility. We contend with two uncertainties: unforeseeable patient arrivals and random variations in scan durations across different patient types. The objective is to balance the competing goals of minimizing patient waiting time and idle time of the machine (desired to be near zero). Two different online policies are proposed for scheduling. To accommodate scan time variability, strategic overbooking is done. The proposed appointment policies are simulated and compared. Additionally, we present an offline optimization model where the entire patient stream is known while scheduling appointments. Chance-constrained programming is used to account for random service times. Online policies are compared with offline assessing scheduling efficiency with queue information.
