Reducing No-Shows and Cancellations at the ECU School of Dental Medicine

Abstract

The East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine treats patients of all ages and provides several services, which are performed by dental students. Services performed include teeth cleanings, cavity fillings, surgical operations. Dental students are required to have a certain number of patients to meet graduation requirements and gain experience. Patient cancellations and “no-shows” have challenged the dental students to fulfill these requirements and have caused a loss of revenue for the dental school. The East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine desires a resolution that will reduce patient cancellations and “no-shows”. The engineering capstone team developed a problem description, problem definition, and an ideation process which allowed for possible scheduling solutions. The number of solutions reduced by feasibility. Desired solutions were determined from the feasible solutions using a weighted decision matrix. The team will soon select an alternative that meets objectives and constraints identified in the problem statement.