FIELD OF INVENTION
[001] The present disclosure relates to a dynamic and self-evolving appointment
management system. The said disclosure provides a system and a method for
scheduling appointments at any time for professionals, such as Lawyers, Doctors,
Educationists and so on. It is suitable for all professionals who require
appointment management. The present invention relates to automation
incorporated in a system for managing appointments based on appointee's status
by shuffling appointments based on different parameters, adding/blocking
appointment slots, and inserting appointments at real time.
BACKGROUND
[002] Computer programs for appointment scheduling have been known in the
art. Persons of such programs have been able to make their own respective
schedules. In a work place with several professionals, appointments are usually
scheduled by office personnel, in response to Appointees' or professionals'
requests, for a large number of professionals and resources.
[003] The conventional appointment scheduling system provides fixed size
appointment time slot to people. These appointment slots are managed and
updated periodically. Using mediums like Mobile Apps, Web Apps, and Tele-Call
instant appointments can be made for future date and time. The appointments can
be predetermined as to type and duration and a scheduler can refer to a list of such
pre-configured appointments in scheduling Appointees. Various types of colorcoding
arrangements and icons are provided for Appointee status.
[004] However, as a working day progresses, circumstances may occur that
require modifications of the schedules in real time. For example, appointee may
call in for emergency appointments or cancellation; unanticipated delays may
occur; appointment history of an Appointee may indicate that he needs more or
less than the allocated standard time slot.
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[005] Further, most appointees have experienced the frustration of waiting for a
long time during their visits. Long wait times are a serious problem causing lost
wages for appointees, introducing frustration and anger into the service
environment, bringing significant stress and lengthening workdays for the staff,
and causing lost business when appointee choose to seek another provider after a
lengthy wait.
[006] At the present time it is not possible to optimize appointments based on a
plurality of real-time information, in an appointment scheduling computer
program. In addition, it is desired to schedule various kinds of appointments in a
manner such that the waiting time of the Appointee too is reduced.
SUMMARY
[007] The object of the present invention is to create a system to control or
reduce appointee wait times.
[008] Another object is to provide a more predictable workday, by reducing the
variability of start and finish times for staff.
[009] Another object is to provide transparency in queue with respect to how
slots are managed from appointee perspective.
[010] Another object is to have a self-evolving slots allocation and creation
process driven from its experiences/usage.
[011] Another object is to improvise on existing scheduling practices, by
providing an easy-to-learn system that requires minimal time during appointment
scheduling, and minimal changes to existing practices.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[012] FIG. A is an actual image of the prototype device in accordance with the
embodiments of the invention
[013] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of appointment booking system
[014] FIG. 2 is a block diagram to shows steps of appointment booking based on
Best Available Time for an appointee.
[015] FIG. 3 is a block diagram to show the cancellation of the appointment by
an appointee.
[016] FIG. 4 is a block diagram to show the dynamic adjustment of the slot in
case of a no-show.
[017] FIG. 5 is a block diagram to show the rescheduling of appointment time.
[018] FIG. 6 is a block diagram to show dynamic adjustment of the timeslot if
less time is taken by appointee against its predetermined schedule.
[019] FIG. 7 is a block diagram to show the dynamic adjustment of the
appointment slot if appointee exceeds the predetermined time slot.
[020] FIG. 8 is a representative image of the device depicting the admission of
an appointee.
[021] FIG. 9 is a representative image of a device customized for electronic
health record depicting the automated transfer of hand written prescription from
electronic slate board to tablet.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[022] The present disclosure relates to a method and an appointment
management system. The system aims to provide consistency and transparency in
appointment management method with the help of automation incorporated in it.
An intelligent and self-evolving system is designed and implemented to deliver
automation on three basic aspects of appointment management system i.e.
booking, managing and tracking. Automatic re-shuffling of appointment for better
management, maintain appointment status for tracking purpose and easy to use
platforms for appointment booking is discussed in details below.
[023] The automated work flows will help in managing the appointment list far
more effectively and efficiently in cases such as person running late or ahead, last
minute cancellations, appointee not showing up at the time of appointment. All
this and more will be taken care by the application on its own. The actions taken
will be based on appointment status and will require minimal or no manual
intervention. Statuses will be maintained with respect to each appointment for
tracking.
[024] Those skilled in the art will be aware that the present disclosure is subject
to variations and modifications other than those specifically described. It is to be
understood that the present disclosure includes all such variations and
modifications. The below illustrations are for the understanding of the invention
and should in no way be constructed to be limiting.
[025] FIG. A is an actual image of the prototype developed in accordance with
the embodiments of the present invention. As shown in figure, there is an
electronic slate which is attached to another electronic device which could be a
tablet or a computer or a mobile. Attached to slate is a pen. As and when the pen
comes in contact with the slate, and whatever action is done, is replicated on the
tablet. Thus, a circuit is completed, and transfer of information takes place from
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the slate to the tablet in real time. The data stored in the tablet is available on the
server/ cloud and can be recalled as and when required.
[026] In accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 1
depicts the appointment booking system integrated in to the device. To book an
appointment via walk-in or telecom 101, appointee provides available time 102 in
the system. If that slot is available, then it's blocked 103 and Administrator books
an appointment slot close to the time given by Appointee 106. If not, Appointment
booking system provides administrator with feature such as BAT (Best Available
Time) 104, which helps in identifying the earliest available appointment 105.
Alternatively, if the Appointee is not sure about the time and wants an
appointment at the earliest, he or she will be given the Best Available Time Slot
(Auto-calculated time) available in the system for his/her appointment 104. The
appointment gets booked 106 and appointment status becomes 'confirmed'.
Appointee notified for his/her appointment time with regular updates in case of
any change.
[027] In accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 2
depicts a scenario when Appointee arrives prior to his appointment201. Appointee
has a confirmed appointment 202 and he/she reaches prior to his appointment time
203. Administrator changes the status for Appointee's appointment from
"Confirmed" to "Has Arrived" 204. If the Best Available time slot is earlier than
Appointee's appointment time, his/her appointment will be moved to Best
Available Time Slot 205 and appointment status gets updated 206. In case Best
Available time is later than Appointee's appointment time, only the status gets
ochanged 207 and appointment time remains the same.
[028] In accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 3
depicts a scenario when appointee requests for cancellation of his/her appointment.
Appointee has a confirmed appointment and he/she would like to cancel it 301.
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The Appointee's appointment details will be removed from the appointment list
and that time slot becomes available for other appointments 302. Following cases
might be applicable in this scenario: a. The first appointment having "Has
Arrived" status 303 will be moved in place of the No-Show appointment time 304;
In case there is no appointment with 'Has Arrived' status and 'emptied slot' time
is earlier than Best Available Time Slot, then Best Available Time slot will be
- updated 305. If the Emptied slot time is later than the Best Available Time Slot,
then the "emptied slot" appointment is marked available 307. The Best Available
Time Slot is updated accordingly 306.
[029] In accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 4
depicts a No-show scenario. As depicted in the figure, the appointee does not turn
up for his/her appointment neither has he/she informed Administrator about it 401.
Administrator will mark Appointee's appointment as a no-show and it will be
removed from the appointment list 402. The appointment having "Has Arrived"
status will be moved in place of the No-Show appointment time 404. In case there
is no appointment in the list with 'Has Arrived status, then the no-show time slot
becomes Best Available Time slot 405 and the Best Available Time is updated
accordingly, 406. If the Best Available Time slot 405 is later than the cancelled
slot time, the slot time becomes available 407.
[030] In accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 5
depicts re-scheduling of an appointment. In case appointee reschedules the
appointment via android app or website, reception application is notified for the
same and appointment time will be updated and previous appointment time
becomes available again. In case of walk-in or telecom, if Appointee requests to
change his/her appointment time 501; Administrator selects the row with
Appointee details in the appointment list and performs press and hold action 502.
Next the application provides option to confirm/ edit appointment action, if
selected yes then Appointee's details get displayed in the 'Add Appointment
section' and Administrator can select the new time. Once the new time is
allocated, the previous time slot becomes available 505. The first appointment
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having "Has Arrived" status will be moved in place of the No-Show appointment
time In case there is no appointment with 'Has Arrived' status and emptied slot
time is less then Best Available Time Slot, then the Best Available Time slot will
be updated. If the Emptied slot time is later than Best Available Time Slot 506,
then the "slot" appointment is marked available 508.
In accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 6 depicts a
scenario wherein person is running ahead of its schedule. Illustratively, person has
finished his/her appointment earlier than allocated time 601, then a new empty
time slot will be added in the appointment list automatically 602 and will be
available for appointment. In case the time he is ahead is greater than single
appointment time by the system, the slot will be kept open for an appointment.
The first appointment having "Has Arrived" status will be moved to this new
empty slot created in appointment list and list will be shuffled accordingly. In case
there is no appointment with 'Has Arrived' status and new slot time is earlier than
Best Available Time Slot, then Best Available Time slot will be updated. This will
help in reflecting the free time available in the appointment list and will allow for
more appointments than initially scheduled. Appointment statuses will be
maintained to keep track of current appointment state and will be considered while
re-shuffling the appointments in appointment list.
[031] In accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 7
depicts a scenario wherein an appointee is running behind the schedule. Since a
background job will be running throughout to check whether person is working as
per his/her schedule or not 701, and in case person arrives late for appointment or
has taken more time than desired on current appointment 702; it will have an
impact on next subsequent appointments i.e. the next Appointee has to wait. In this
scenario, appointment list is shuffled to compensate for delay in time 703. This
shift in appointments slot will help in reducing the time overhead caused by person
running late.
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[032] In many a scenario, when a person is running late with his current
appointment i.e. "spending more time than initially assigned/calculated", then the
application will make smart shuffling of appointment slots in the appointment list
with single objective of reducing the waiting time to minimum for subsequent
appointees in the appointment list. This re-shuffling will consider other factors
such as Appointment status for subsequent appointments, delay in time, next
free/available slot and so on.
[033] The aim is to provide another option to an Appointee who might not be
able to report for his/her appointment in time and thus preventing his/her
appointment from getting no-show status as multiple no show status by same
appointee may get it blacklisted.
[034] Appointment statuses will be maintained to keep track of current
appointment state and will be considered while re-shuffling the appointments in
appointment list.
[035] In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, when an
appointee enters cabin for diagnosis, the Administrator will press the check in
button for Appointee who is next in line to enter cabin for diagnosis, the
appointment status will change to 'Diagnosis-in-progress\ The Appointee's
appointment details will be removed from the appointment list. Once the next
Appointee-in-line checks-in, the previous Appointees appointment status changes
to 'Diagnosis complete'.
[036] Adding an Emergency appointment: Person will have provision to
customize emergency appointment position in the list. For example person sets
emergency appointment to be added after every two default appointments then in
case of a new emergency appointment system will add it two after two
appointments. The re-shuffling will always be done for appointments having "Has
Arrived" status. Further emergency appointments will be added after every two
appointments keeping the first emergency appointment as starting point.
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[037] The application will be self-evolving i.e. it will evolve from its
experiences on areas like Average time taken to handle an appointment on
different working hours and days, Frequency of visitors on different working hours
and days. The calculations will be done on a regular basis by taking into
consideration the said parameters thereby designing/creating the schedule
accordingly for respective days and hours, providing dynamism in schedule
creation. Appointment Slot size will consists of two main components one is
average time taken and second would be an uncertainty index called buffer.
Appointment time = Average Appointment time for nth hour of a day + buffer for
nth hour of the day.
Average appointment time will be computed based on the data captured by system
during deployment. When computing the average appointment time, the system
will take into consideration the person's past experience for that nth hour of that
particular day.
[038] Buffers on the other hand will be dependent on various factors like
Appointee's inflow at different hours, person behavioral aspect like at the start of
shift whether he/she arrives at their work place in-time or there is a delay or they
arrive early No-Show rate at the person's work place at different hours, VIP
Appointees inflow rate at different hours and so on. All the above mentioned
factors will be calculated on daily basis and will be considered when calculating
the buffers.
[039] The application provides dynamic views for identifying free/open
appointment slots for a given day or hour. This will help in speeding up the
appointment booking process. Along with Best Available Time, the person will
also have this view available to look/find for all empty slots available in a day or
hour.
[040] A single click operation for selecting available appointment slot, further
improves the overall efficiency in appointment booking process.
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[041] FIG. 8 clearly depicts the two tick mark buttons on the electronic slate
board, a tick and a cross. When clicked on those buttons by a pen, the information
is either transferred when ticked, or deletes the information when 'crossed'.
[042] The present invention is further customized for HealthCare Specific
industry by way of representation as depicted in FIG. 9. By no means should it be
considered limiting. The appointment management system is customized for the
Electronic Health Record System. Thus a prescription paper is placed over an
electronic slate attached to Athan Terminal. As seen in figure, a button like image
is printed on the prescription paper, and if that image like button is clicked using
the ball point pen, the instruction written on that electronic slate board is
automatically transferred from the prescription paper to the tablet. Addition or
deletion of pages to/from the electronic prescription using pen and prescription
paper can be done by clicking the 'tick" or 'cross' button print, respectively.
[043] Revisit reminder too is automatically sent to the patient and to the server
for sending reminders to the patients by circular buttons printed on the prescription
paper as depicted on top, right hand side.
[044] Accessibility to Medical Records: Since the slate is connected to the
tablet, the prescription paper comes with an option to access the medical records
from the slate on the tablet. The 'records' tab is printed on the bottom right side of
the prescription paper. As soon as the doctor tick-marks using the pen, he will be
able to access all of the patients1 medical records on the tablet.
[045] Some other features includes,
a. letting the receptionist know about the end of consultation using the paper
prescription by
1. Simply clicking on the submit button as soon as the doctor is done with
the consultation.
2. Once the doctor is through with the Patient, the details of the patient
which was green in color before, will be removed from the list.
3.The receptionist can now check-in the next patient
b. General Assessment Form - body parts and tick marking symptoms
l.The doctor will have to fill in a general examination form reporting the
necessary information about the current state of patient's health.
2.The paper will have customized range of numbers against the parameter
on which the patient is being examined.
3.The doctor will tick mark the measurement and it will be recorded as his
health record and uploaded on the cloud, which can later be accessed by both
doctors and patients.
4. The next time patient revisits the doctor, hell be given a new general
examination form and the doctor will have to follow the general routine.
5.0ur technology will provide both parties with charts to indicate the
improvement or detriment in the patientfs health - predictive analysis
c. Another form to be filled by the doctor will have the outline of a human body
and the doctor will mark the area(s) of trouble of the patient. The doctor would
then be checking the symptom(s) of the body part indicated on the tablet as per the
selected body part. The same will be documented and made available to both the
doctor and the patient for access at any time.

I claim:
1. A fully automated portable device comprising:
a touch responsive electronic slate display having an area for handwritten
characters;
a pen; and
a mobile computing device.
2. A real time, self managing appointment system comprising:
a processor;
a database accessible by the processor; and
a storage medium comprising, instructions operable to direct the processor to access
the database; and
instructions operable to direct the processor to generate a handwriting recognition
interface for preparing the prescription.
3. The method of making appointments wherein an appointee provides available time
in the appointment system;
administrator books an appointment slot close to the time given by Appointee;
BAT (Best Available Time) helps in identifying the earliest available
appointment; and
the appointment gets booked with confirmed status.
4. A method of preparing an Electronic Health Record (EHR), the method
comprising:
creating a list of patients with their history;
generating a prescription; and
generating a handwriting recognition interface for preparing the prescription.