Partially-partitioned Templating Strategies for Outpatient Specialty Practices

Accepted at Production and Operations Management

41 Pages Posted: 12 May 2020 Last revised: 17 Aug 2022

See all articles by Miao Bai

Miao Bai

Department of Operations and Information Management, University of Connecticut

Bjorn Berg

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Division of Health Policy and Management

Esra Sisikoglu Sir

Amazon.com

Mustafa Sir

Amazon.com

Date Written: September 9, 2020

Abstract

Templating strategies specify policies on capacity allocation and appointment booking, which are central to patient access management in outpatient specialty practices (SPs). In the widely-implemented partitioned templating strategy, appointment capacity is allocated exclusively to each patient group defined by a combination of patient attributes and medical conditions, which often results in utilization challenges for SPs. Motivated by problems faced by an SP within a large academic medical center, we propose partially-partitioned templating strategies that cluster patient groups into access classes and allocate appointment slots to these classes. We formulate a two-stage stochastic optimization model to simultaneously optimize decisions on patient group clustering and capacity allocation in the templating strategy design. We develop an efficient solution algorithm for the problem, which otherwise poses a combinatorial challenge, based on Benders’ cuts and an anticipatory approximation. Numerical experiments using real-world data show that the partially-partitioned strategies outperform benchmark strategies used by SPs through maintaining a balance of high capacity utilization and providing timely access for priority patients. In addition, we study a wide range of SP setups for transferable insights on templating strategies based on practice specifics.

Keywords: Outpatient Specialty Practice, stochastic optimization, templating strategy, patient access management

Suggested Citation

Bai, Miao and Berg, Bjorn and Sisikoglu Sir, Esra and Sir, Mustafa, Partially-partitioned Templating Strategies for Outpatient Specialty Practices (September 9, 2020). Accepted at Production and Operations Management, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3571422 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3571422

Miao Bai (Contact Author)

Department of Operations and Information Management, University of Connecticut ( email )

OPIM Dept.
2100 Hillside Road, U1041
Storrs, CT CT 06269-1041
United States

Bjorn Berg

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Division of Health Policy and Management ( email )

516 Delaware St SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States

Esra Sisikoglu Sir

Amazon.com ( email )

Seattle, WA 98144
United States

Mustafa Sir

Amazon.com ( email )

Seattle, WA 98144
United States

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