TABLE 1.

Optimal scheduling policy

Fill any unused capacity for the next day by assigning patients to that day in priority order. Schedule any remaining high-priority demand to the earliest available time slots before the maximum recommended wait time for this class. If there is outstanding high-priority demand that cannot be scheduled prior to its maximum recommended wait time, serve it through overtime. Schedule all other priority classes starting from the last available day that does not exceed the maximum recommended waiting time for that priority class, scheduling patients in priority class order. If there is insufficient capacity to schedule demand prior to its target date after all higher-priority classes have been allocated in the order described above, use overtime to serve this demand.