Using the theory of constraints’ processes of ongoing improvement to address the provider appointment scheduling system execution problem

Abstract

Many primary care clinics suffer from chaos. In scheduling, providers are continually trying unsuccessfully to balance supply and demand, and in execution, to manage disruptions to provider focus and patient flow. In this research the theory of constraints’ (TOC) three processes of ongoing improvement (POOGI) provide a direction for the solution to achieving more, cheaper, better, and faster healthcare. This research is the second of a two-part study examining the appointment scheduling literature, identifying the core problem (using a case study for validation) and providing a generic process for developing effective provider appointment scheduling systems (PASS). In the first part, PASS design was studied and in this second part PASS execution is studied. A strawman process is developed to apply across outpatient medical practices. With this generic process implemented across outpatient scheduling systems cost could be reduced significantly while the quality and timeliness could be increased significantly.