Ranked Appointment Slot Reallocation for Earlier Care Access

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Solution Overview

Problem

Patients often face difficulties in seeing their healthcare providers in a timely manner due to overbooking and last-minute cancellations, leading to inefficiencies and lost revenue for providers.

Innovation Solution

A system and method that utilizes SMS technology to offer patients the option to reschedule or cancel appointments by identifying available time slots and sending personalized messages based on ranking criteria, allowing patients to accept or decline earlier appointments.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If providers over-book their schedules to see additional patients, then provider productivity increases, but patient wait times increase and scheduling reliability decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveprovider productivityVSAvoidscheduling reliability

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by proactively notifying patients of available time slots before they cancel their appointments. The notification system sends messages to patients in advance, allowing them to voluntarily switch to earlier slots before the original appointment time, thereby preventing no-shows and optimizing schedule utilization without requiring aggressive over-booking

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback mechanisms by monitoring appointment status changes, cancellation requests, and patient responses to notifications. This feedback loop allows the scheduling system to dynamically adjust and optimize time slot allocation based on real-time patient behavior patterns, improving both productivity and reliability

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Productivity

If providers triple book their schedules in anticipation of cancellations, then time slot utilization improves, but patient wait times increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetime slot utilizationVSAvoidpatient wait times

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by identifying available time slots and proactively notifying patients before their original appointment times. This allows patients to voluntarily switch to earlier slots in advance, optimizing time slot utilization without creating excessive wait times, as patients are notified ahead of time rather than being forced into triple-booked schedules

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system dynamically adjusts scheduling strategies based on real-time conditions. When a patient cancels or an earlier slot becomes available, the system flexibly reallocates time slots through automated notifications, creating a dynamic scheduling system that optimizes utilization while adapting to patient needs rather than rigidly enforcing fixed schedules

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

3Stability of the object's composition

If patients make appointments months in advance, then provider scheduling stability improves, but patient accessibility to timely care decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvescheduling stabilityVSAvoidpatient access time

Core Design Contradiction:

Stability of the object's compositionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by proactively notifying patients of available time slots before their scheduled appointments. This allows patients who need care sooner to voluntarily switch to earlier slots in advance, maintaining scheduling stability while improving patient access timing through proactive communication rather than rigid long-term scheduling

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

4Adaptability or versatility

If patients cancel appointments on short notice, then patient flexibility improves, but provider revenue is lost

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepatient flexibilityVSAvoidprovider revenue

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements feedback mechanisms by monitoring cancellation requests and patient responses to notifications. When patients cancel on short notice or respond to availability notifications, the system dynamically adjusts scheduling and reallocates time slots, thereby minimizing revenue loss while maintaining patient flexibility through automated adaptive response

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The system converts the harm of last-minute cancellations into beneficial outcomes by using cancellation notifications as triggers to proactively offer available time slots to other patients. This transforms what would be lost revenue into opportunities for rebooking, as the system identifies and reallocates freed time slots to patients who need care sooner

Inventive Principle:

Principle #22Blessing in disguise (Convert harm into benefit)

Data Source

PatentUS12444494B2Systems and methods for optimizing time slot yield rates

Publication Date: 2025.10.14 PELTZ BRADLEY G

AI summary

Systems and methods discussed herein are related to optimizing time slot yield rates. A method can include: determining that an earlier time slot has become available; identifying a set of users corresponding with preexisting time slots scheduled for a time later than the available earlier time slot; ranking the set of users according to ranking criteria; selecting, based on ranking the set of users, a subset of top ranked users eligible for the available time slot; sending a set of messages to the subset of users indicating that the earlier time slot is available; receiving a message from a first user of the subset of users indicating that the first user is willing to replace their corresponding preexisting time slot with the available earlier time slot; and replacing the first user's corresponding preexisting time slot with the available earlier time slot.