SIMPLE MODELS OF WAITING LISTS

Motivated by recent empirical studies of the length distribution of hospital waiting lists, we introduce and solve a set of models that imitate the formation of waiting lists. Patients arriving in the system must choose a waiting list to join, based on its length. At the same time patients leave the lists as they get served. The model illustrates how the power-law distributions found in the empirical studies might arise, but indicates that the mechanism causing the power-laws is unlikely to be the preferential behavior of patients or their physicians.