How to manage outpatient service with strategic walk-ins? - The research results of Assistant Professor Wang Shan of our school were published in Management Science

Appointment is a convenient medical service carried out in recent years. Hospital managers urgently need to know how patients choose between appointment and on-site registration, and how medical institutions can influence patients' behavior by allocating outpatient resources, designing appointment system and formulating medical treatment rules, so as to realize efficient utilization of outpatient resources.

Dr. Shan Wang from the School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University and his collaborators developed a queuing-game mathematical model. This study proves that when outpatient resources are scarce, medical institutions should prioritize resources on appointment and reserve only a small part of resources to the walk-ins, so that patients can actively avoid the long wait and crowded on-site registration, so that outpatient resources can be efficiently used by patients with appointments. However, when outpatient resources are sufficient, medical institutions should open enough on-site registration to attract patients as much as possible, so as to avoid patients giving up due to the failure of making appointment, and at the same time alleviate the pressure on emergency departments.

Recently, the research results were published in Management Science under the title of "Managing Outpatient Service with Strategic Walk-ins". Assistant Professor Wang Shan from the School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University is the corresponding author. The collaborators include Associate Professor Nan Liu from Boston College, Associate Professor Willem van Jaarsveld from Eindhoven University of Technology and Assistant Professor Guanlian Xiao from Cape Breton University.