A revenue management framework for appointment allocation in rehabilitation outpatient clinics

Abstract

Rehabilitation outpatient clinics help patients overcome physical disabilities through various rehabilitation services. Appointment scheduling and accepting new patients are very important processes in rehabilitation outpatient clinics. In this thesis, several mathematical models for generating optimal appointment schedules with an objective to maximize the profit when demand is deterministic are developed. In these models, the possibility of treating more than one patient simultaneously is also considered. In this case, grouping patients results in the minimal use of part time therapists. When the demand is stochastic, a revenue management framework to allocate appointments is proposed. Using the proposed revenue management framework, the revenue and overall profit generated is maximized. To test the effectiveness of this framework, extensive simulation study is performed. Analysis of mathematical and simulation models reveal that the proposed methodologies result in an increased revenue and profit when the capacity is tight and demand is high. The revenue management framework also increases the number of new customers accepted for treatment in an outpatient clinic significantly.