Using Predictive Analytics and Data Mining to Reduce the Patients’ Appointment ‘Waiting Waste’

Abstract

EmiratesAbstractThe outpatient appointment ‘waiting waste’ is caused by healthcare capacity constraints and the variability associated with patients arrivals. Appointments overbooking minimizes the disruptive influence ofnoshows on healthcare quality but the homogenous handling of patients, despite the evidence that multiple factors contribute to noshows rates,limits the potential benefits. This study advocates the use of data mining to identify various patterns in thebig healthcare data to determine appropriate ‘overbooking levels’ by matching patients’individual characteristics to the historic arrival patterns.Predictive Analytics for overbooking is likely to reduce the outpatients’ delays substantially by augmenting the healthcare capacity.