Scheduling interface system and method for medical professionals
First Claim
1. An asynchronous system for scheduling appointments for a plurality of patients at medical facilities of a plurality of medical professionals comprising:
- (a) a master schedule electronic data base having;
a. a data base of existing appointments for said medical professionals, b. means for updating said data base;
c. another data base of available appointment times for said medical professionals, d. means for updating said another data base, e. tentative appointment data base storage means for electronically storing records of tentative appointments for said patients with said medical professionals, means for asynchronously requiring subsequent electronic confirmation or rejection of said tentative appointments, and f. means for electronically communicating indicia of said tentative appointments to said medical professionals;
(b) a coordination center having;
a. communication means including a telephonic link, b. means including said telephonic link for individually effecting telephonic communication with said patients;
c. means for making said tentative appointments for said patients with said medical professionals and for communicating indicia of said tentative appointments to said master schedule data base;
(c) means including said tentative appointment storage means responsive to receipt of said indicia of said tentative appointments for storing said indicia; and
(d) means responsive to inquiry by an inquiring one of said medical professionals of tentative appointments made for said inquiring one of said medical professionals to electronically transmit to said inquiring one of said medical professionals indicia of tentative appointments made for said inquiring one of said medical professionals.
11 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a system and method for scheduling appointments at any time with a professional, such as a doctor, dentist, veterinarian, or the like, or a professional service, such as a medical testing facility and the like, even when the office of the professional or professional service is closed. The system and method relate to an asynchronous Internet, intranet, and extranet-compatible 24-hour appointment scheduling interface for making such appointments. As such, they support open-standards architecture, provide an interface for proprietary system architecture, permit off-line review and posting, permit access controls and virus protection, allow central scheduling without loss of distributed control, support encrypted messaging to ensure privacy, and include context-sensitive help. The system and method also embrace and integrate over the Internet all of the existing office administration scheduling packages for professional offices, such as doctors'"'"' offices, regardless of the platforms used, i.e., PC, Apple or UNIX platforms, thereby permitting users to schedule and confirm, for example, doctor appointments in one consistent interface, regardless of the hardware or software utilized by either the party seeking to schedule an appointment or the individual doctor involved.
-
Citations
43 Claims
-
1. An asynchronous system for scheduling appointments for a plurality of patients at medical facilities of a plurality of medical professionals comprising:
-
(a) a master schedule electronic data base having;
a. a data base of existing appointments for said medical professionals, b. means for updating said data base;
c. another data base of available appointment times for said medical professionals, d. means for updating said another data base, e. tentative appointment data base storage means for electronically storing records of tentative appointments for said patients with said medical professionals, means for asynchronously requiring subsequent electronic confirmation or rejection of said tentative appointments, and f. means for electronically communicating indicia of said tentative appointments to said medical professionals;
(b) a coordination center having;
a. communication means including a telephonic link, b. means including said telephonic link for individually effecting telephonic communication with said patients;
c. means for making said tentative appointments for said patients with said medical professionals and for communicating indicia of said tentative appointments to said master schedule data base;
(c) means including said tentative appointment storage means responsive to receipt of said indicia of said tentative appointments for storing said indicia; and
(d) means responsive to inquiry by an inquiring one of said medical professionals of tentative appointments made for said inquiring one of said medical professionals to electronically transmit to said inquiring one of said medical professionals indicia of tentative appointments made for said inquiring one of said medical professionals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 41)
-
-
15. An asynchronous system for scheduling appointments for a plurality of patients at medical facilities of a plurality of medical professionals comprising:
-
(a) a master schedule electronic data base having;
a. a data base of existing appointments for said medical professionals, and b. means for updating said data base;
(b) another electronic data base having;
a. available appointment times for said medical professionals, and b. means for updating said another data base;
(c) a tentative booking electronic data base having;
a. tentative appointment storage means for electronically storing records of tentative appointments for said patients with said medical professionals, means for asynchronously requiring subsequent confirmation or rejection of said tentative appointments, and b. means for electronically communicating indicia of said tentative appointments to said medical professionals;
(d) a coordination center having;
a. communication means including a telephonic link, b. means including said telephonic link for individually effecting telephonic communication with said patients;
c. tentative booking means for making tentative appointments for said patients with said medical professionals and for communicating indicia of said tentative appointments to said tentative booking data base;
(e) means including said tentative booking means responsive to receipt of said indicia of said tentative appointments for storing said indicia; and
(f) means responsive to inquiry by an inquiring one of said medical professionals of tentative appointments made for said inquiring one of said medical professionals to electronically transmit to said inquiring one of said medical professionals indicia of tentative appointments made for said inquiring one of said medical professionals. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 42)
-
-
29. A method of asynchronously supervising and controlling appointment scheduling for a plurality of patients at medical facilities of a plurality of medical professionals comprising steps of:
-
(1) establishing a master centralized electronic data base to serve a plurality of medical professionals;
(2) providing at least one call center for electronically communicating with said master data base;
(3) electronically storing in said master data base indicia indicative of appointments available with said medical professionals at medical facilities of said medical professionals;
(4) receiving at said call center indicia from a patient indicating a request for an appointment time with one of said medical professionals;
(5) interrogating said master data base to determine said available appointments, and;
(a) when said requested appointment time is available, (i) tentatively making said requested appointment, said appointment being tentative and requiring subsequent confirmation or rejection, (ii) communicating a tentative unconfirmed booking for said requested appointment time to said patient requesting said appointment, and (iii) communicating said tentative booking for said requested appointment time to the medical professional for whom said tentative booking is made, (b) when said requested appointment time is not available, (i) informing said patient of non-availability of said requested appointment time, (ii) informing said patient of available appointment times, (iii) requesting said patient to select from said available appointment times, (iv) receiving from said patient an alternative request for appointment, (v) communicating a tentative unconfirmed alternative booking for said alternative appointment time to said patient requesting said alternative appointment, and (vi) communicating said tentative alternative booking for said requested appointment time to the medical professional for whom said tentative alternative booking is made. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 43)
-
Specification