Optimization of Telemedicine Appointments in Rural Areas

What is the optimal number of patients to schedule for a telemedicine clinic, and when should they be scheduled to arrive? Telemedicine services are increasingly being used to provide medical care to patients in rural areas; thus, it is important to determine the best way to schedule patients given factors such as length of the clinic day, time needed to sanitize procedure equipment, and patients missing their appointments. The authors provide scheduling insights for a telemedicine clinic that provides procedures for bladder cancer surveillance in rural Virginia. They find that between five and seven patients should be scheduled for this clinic depending on whether the clinic would rather minimize provider overtime (five patients) or see as many patients as possible without excessive overtime (seven patients). When minimizing provider overtime, it is recommended to schedule patients close together at the beginning of the day and after lunch, because some patients may not come to their appointments. The findings from this work have informed scheduling practices at the telemedicine clinic in rural Virginia. The insight for management is that optimal appointment scheduling has the potential to reduce provider downtime between patients and efficiently allow more patients to benefit from specialty care via telemedicine.