Objective. To test if appointment reminders blinded to immunization status improve kept-appointment and vaccination coverage rates. Design. Controlled trial. Setting. Pediatric clinic serving a low-income community in New York City. Intervention. Children ages 4 through 18 months (n 5 1273) scheduled sequentially for clinic appointments were systematically assigned to 1 of 4 study groups: contr...

We develop a queueing model for an appointment-based service system that consists of two queues in tandem: the appointment queue followed by the service queue. Customers join the appointment queue when they call for appointments, stay there (not physically) until the appointment time comes, and then leave the appointment queue and may physically join the service queue, and wait there until serv...

An outpatient department in which non-urgent patients arrived for consultation faces with the problem of patients’ long waiting time. Lack of an effective appointment is considered as the cause. In this study, a discrete event simulation model was developed to evaluate an appointment system. The developed system considered appointment rule, sequencing rule and environmental factor (priority rul...

BACKGROUND To determine whether the length of time between alcohol-related attendance in the emergency department (ED) and follow-up appointment with an alcohol health worker (AHW) alters attendance rate at the AHW clinic. METHODS We examined paper and computerized records made by AHWs over a 4-year period, collecting data on the length of time between identification of alcohol misuse and the...

Computerised appointment system. Computerised appointment systems offer great flexibility in making and checking appointments but have to be extremely well written to be more usable than the traditional appointment book at the reception desk. One strength of the book is that it readily allows the receptionist an overview of activity in the practice, whereas computerised systems often show just ...

In recent years the sophistication and application of Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) has increased significantly and they are now seen as vital systems for gaining efficiency improvements and cost savings within the logistics industry. However, the successful implementation of a WMS is rare. Therefore, this study’s aims were to explore the key factors that influence the success of a WMS dev...

Some patients have difficulty in achieving an appointment to see a doctor in a university teaching practice. Only five per cent of patients indicated serious difficulty. Patients who discriminate in favour of seeing a particular doctor have greater difficulty. It is suggested also that some patients have the same difficulty if they are making an appointment to see a particular doctor.Clearly th...