Minimizing expected waiting in a medical appointment system

An appointment policy is established for a specific outpatient system, with the goal of reducing a combination of patientsʹ expected waiting times and doctorʹs expected overtime. Service times are stochastic, and patients are assumed to be punctual if they show for their appointments. Substantial reductions in waiting times can be obtained over traditional scheduling practices, and the procedure is easily implemented by a naive scheduler once the optimal policy is established.