The outpatient availability score: an alternative approach to measuring demand

Area of Science:

• Radiology Management
• Healthcare Operations Research

Background:

• Radiology business managers face daily challenges in optimizing access, utilization, and efficiency of expensive resources.
• Accurate measurement of outpatient appointment availability is crucial for operational decision-making but is often inexact.
• Existing metrics like next or third next appointment availability have limitations in forecasting and quantity assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate the Outpatient Availability Score (OAS) for predicting radiology appointment availability.
• To improve resource access prediction by incorporating patient preferences into the availability metric.
• To provide a more accurate and comprehensive measure of appointment availability compared to traditional methods.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Outpatient Availability Score (OAS) incorporating patient preference.
• Utilization of a range of predictors (thresholds) to categorize appointment availability likelihood (low, medium, high).
• Customization of OAS thresholds to adapt to operational fluctuations and demand.

Main Results:

• The OAS forecasts appointment availability over an extended period.
• The OAS quantifies the quantity of available appointments.
• The OAS provides a superior indication of the department's capacity to meet patient scheduling needs.

Conclusions:

• The Outpatient Availability Score (OAS) offers a more effective method for predicting outpatient appointment availability in radiology departments.
• Integrating OAS with other metrics provides managers with enhanced insights into access and demand.
• The OAS empowers proactive management of demand, leading to more efficient radiology operations.