Appointments for Care Pathway Patients

Care pathways have gained popularity in the healthcare sector the last two decades [2]. A care pathway is a management tool to organize multidisciplinary care for patients with identical characteristics (i.e., disease symptoms, diagnosis, age, etcetera). The care pathway specifies the steps in the care process [1] and routes patients along a pre-defined path of care providers and diagnostic facilities. Patients may complete a significant part of the path in one day. Given the vast number of hospital facilities incorporated in the path, the planning is usually involved and hospitals tend to prioritize these patients. It is therefore not uncommon that slots are reserved for care pathway patients in an otherwise walk-in clinic. Examples are for instance found at diagnostic services, such as Radiology outpatient clinics (X-ray, CT) and blood withdrawal facilities. When these facilities are highly utilized (>85%), reserving a few slots for care pathway may lead to a significant increase of the waiting time of walk-in patients.