Let me list the most common features in the Appointment module and their priority using MoSCoW Method.
MoSCoW Method
M - MUST:
Describes a requirement that must be satisfied in the final solution for the solution to be considered a success.
S - SHOULD:
Represents a high-priority item that should be included in the solution if it is possible. This is often a critical requirement but one which can be satisfied in other ways if strictly necessary.
C - COULD:
Describes a requirement which is considered desirable but not necessary. This will be included if time and resources permit.
W - WON'T:
Represents a requirement that stakeholders have agreed will not be implemented in a given release, but may be considered for the future.
| Feature 1 | The system should provide the option of quickly registering a patient before booking an appointment without going full walk through of patient registration screen. |
| Use case | Patient is mandatory while booking an appointment. But for a new patient want to book appointment, then user should be able to create the patient in the system with the minimal information quickly and then use for the appointment booking. |
| Must |
| Feature 2 | The system should provide the option to view appointments as daily view, Weekly view and Monthly view |
| Use case | Practice often want to see how many appointments for a week by provider |
| Must |
| Feature 3 | The system should provide the option to schedule appointment for people or resource |
| Use case | Schedule Providers, Nurses, PAs and Schedule Resources – rooms, equipment, etc. |
| Must |
| Feature 4 | Audit Trail for each Appointment. |
| Use case | Often user will make more noise if someone modify or cancelled the existing appointments.
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| Must |
| Feature 5 | Report. The solution should provide the following on the Appointment Report Module
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| Use case | Use case is quite self-explanatory. |
| Must |
| Feature 6 | The Solution should allow appointments to be scheduled in various increments i.e., 15, 30 or 45 minutes, based on reason of visit. |
| Use case | Even though resource default slot time interval can be fixed, but for some appointment type, doctor may need more time apart from the default interval. Usually it will multiple of N times of default Time interval. Say for example, resource default time interval is 15 min, but at the time of appointment booking for appointment reason, the resource may need 30 min. So system should have the option extend the end time at the appointment level. |
| Must |
| Feature 7 | The Solution should notify the booking staff that patient has missed previous appointments. |
| Use case | In some of the practice, as a procedure, they will not allow further appointments for the patient if there are too many no shows in the past. If there are too many no shows, then it will be revenue loss for the doctor. By showing this alert, user can take a call to avoid appointment booking or they can charge small amount on the patient for the previous missed appointments. |
| Should |
| Feature 8 | The Solution should have the ability to display all past and future appointments by a patient in chronological order. |
| Use case | This will help the users to cancel or analyze about the patient appointments. |
| Should |
| Feature 9 | Mark Appointments as Cancelled or No-Show. Very importantly, system should capture the reason when cancelling the appointment |
| Use case | This will help the user to cancel the appointment upon patient request. |
| Should |
| Feature 10 | Mark Appointments as deleted due to data entry error. Very Importantly, system should capture the reason when deleting the appointment and also it should be soft delete. |
| Use case | This will help the user to delete the appointment due to data entry error. |
| Should |
| Feature 11 | Allow overbooking (waiting list) for a given slot according resource preferences |
| Use case | This will help to user to create the appointment as waiting list for a particular slot according to resource preference(allow 1 or 2 or 3 waiting list for me). This way resource can utilize the time slot if someone is no Show. |
| Should |
| Feature 12 | Automatically updates pending appointments based on changes made to patient status (deceased or deactivated). |
| Use case | Use case is quite self-explanatory. On action, the system should inform the user it is going to move all the appointments to cancelled status with automated cancelled reason. |
| Should |
| Feature 13 | Block Times for Non-patient Activities.(i.e. lunch, Meetings, etc.). Should support recurrence pattern by Daily, Weekly, Monthly and yearly. |
| Use case | Use case is quite self-explanatory. |
| Should |
| Feature 14 | User Defined Colors for Coding Appointments Status. The solution should provide this setting by practice, can be overridden by resource and can be overridden by appointment if necessary. |
| Use case | Use case is quite self-explanatory. |
| Should |
| Feature 15 | Cut and Paste Appointments. |
| Use case | The Cut and Paste features of the Scheduler allow you to move selected appointment(s) to different time slots and/or schedules. |
| Should |
| Feature 16 | Duplicate Appointment Alert. When scheduling an appointment for a patient, system should alert the user if the particular patient already have an appointment schedule for the same date , for the same resource or for the different resource. |
| Use case | Use case is quite self-explanatory. |
| Should |
| Feature 17 | Move an appointment from one provider to another provider. |
| Use case | This feature is can be achieved if Cut and Past appointments is available (Feature No 16) |
| Should |
| Feature 18 | Reschedule an appointment without deleting or cancelling the appointment. |
| Use case | This feature is can be achieved if Cut and Past appointments is available (Feature No 16) |
| Should |
| Feature 19 | Appointment Remainder Service via email . The email reminders are automatically set to be sent out one week prior to a scheduled appt, and then also one day prior. |
| Use case | Use case is quite self-explanatory. |
| Should |
| Feature 20 | User Defined Colors for Coding Appointments type or reason. The solution should provide this setting by practice, can be overridden by resource and can be overridden by appointment if necessary. |
| Use case | Use case is quite self-explanatory. |
| Should |
| Feature 21 | Move an appointment in a series to a different service provider or Move an entire series of appointments to a different service provider |
| Use case | This will help the user to switch appointment resource if the particular resource moved out of the practice. |
| Could |
| Feature 22 | Block all the resource scheduler in the practice for the Holidays. This is similar to Feature 14, but there should be way to do the same action for all the available resource in the practice. |
| Use case | Use case is quite self-explanatory. |
| Could |
| Feature 23 | The system should provide the option creating appointments for non-providers such as Nurses, Lab, X-Ray, etc |
| Use case | Use case is quite self-explanatory. |
| Could |
| Feature 24 | Patients With Upcoming Appointments... When scheduling a patient, the system should popup if patient has upcoming appointments if any. Just count can be shown, on clicking of the count, appointment list details can be shown. |
| Use case | Use case is quite self-explanatory. |
| Could |
| Feature 25 | Generates patient instructions when booking particular appointments which can be printed as part of the appointment notification for the patient. |
| Use case | This will help particularly for the Test Visit. There might be some instructions for the patient be prepared before taking any test. http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/features/test-prep/. |
| Could |
| Feature 26 | Change / cancel one appointment in a series without changing / cancelling the others. |
| Use case | This will help the user to change or cancel one appointment in a series (Created using Feature 4) without touching the other appointments belong in the same series. For example, for the post surgery follow up visit, patient may want to cancel one of the appointment due to unavailability. |
| Could |
| Feature 27 | Ability to book a series of appointments based on a care plan.e.g. Monthly appointments for pregnancy checks. e.g. Quarterly appointments for Diabetic patients.To do this, Solution should have the ability of searching free slot in the future for the given provider, preferred start and end time, etc.. |
| Use case | This will help the user to book series of appointments in one click, instead of going each date and each slot and again and again select the same patient. Additionally, the user can give a name for the series of the appointment created, so then for any future reference, they can pull all the appointments by giving the name of the series. |
| Could |
| Feature 28 | The Solution should have the ability Schedule Appointments with Single or Multiple Resources. (e.g. exam rooms, X-Ray machine, etc.) |
| Use case | This will help the patient to complete all type of visits in the same day. Here is an example; Doctor order an X-Ray for the patient which can be taken within the practice itself. So here there are two appointments; one with the test technician who will handle the Lab and after the X-Ray has been taken , the doctor has to review and Change the Notes. So if the solution has the feature of booking appointment for multiple resource consecutively, then it will help the patient to meet the doctor on the same date after Lab part is over. |
| Could |