BACKGROUND The administrative and professional consequences of access targets for general practices, as detailed in the new GMS contract, are unknown. This study researched the effect of implementing the access targets of the new GP contract on general practice appointment systems, and practice manager satisfaction in a UK primary health care setting. METHODS A four-part postal questionnaire ...

In order to develop appropriate queueing models that can be applied to efficiently provide good service in a service system with arrivals by appointment, we carefully consider what stochastic arrival process models may be appropriate. We provide a guideline or template for creating stochastic arrival process models by carefully examining appointment and arrival data from an endocrinology clinic...

E-Appointment Scheduling (EAS) has been developed to handle appointment for UMP students, lecturers in Faculty of Computer Systems & Software Engineering (FCSSE) and Student Medical Center. The schedules are based on the timetable and university activities. Constraints Logic Programming (CLP) has been implemented to solve the scheduling problems by giving recommendation to the users in part of ...

BACKGROUND Missed hospital appointments are a major cause of inefficiency worldwide. Healthcare providers are increasingly using Short Message Service reminders to reduce 'Did Not Attend' (DNA) rates. Systematic reviews show that sending such reminders is effective, but there is no evidence on whether their impact is affected by their content. Accordingly, we undertook two randomised controlled...

In this paper, we present generalized results from the task analysis and definition of software services to support healthcare appointment and services scheduling, based on national coordination project for citizen e-services in Finland which involves several regional initiatives. The results are part of guidelines for regional-level and national-level scheduling solutions in Finland, and can b...