Rules based ticketing for self-scheduling of appointments

• US 7,337,123 B2
• Filed: 04/09/2001
• Issued: 02/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Epic Systems Corporation
• Original Assignee: Epic Systems Corporation
• Inventors: Rana, Sumit S., Dvorak, Carl D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty; Romain
• Assistant Examiner(s): ROBERTSON, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US09/829,292
• Publication Number:
  US 20030208391A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,514 Days
• Field of Search: 705/8
• US Class Current: 705/7.19
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A system to allow self-scheduling of appointments via an electronic network. The electronic network is configured to permit secure access thereto by a service recipient. The system comprises a self-scheduling server coupled to the electronic network for secure communications therewith. The self-scheduling server is adapted to receive appointment scheduling requests from the service recipient securely via the electronic network The self-scheduling server includes a processor which is coupled to a rule base, to a scheduling database, and receives the appointment scheduling requests. The processor is operable upon the appointment scheduling requests to authorize the appointment scheduling request to send appointment schedule information to the scheduling database for inclusion therein and to send an appointment acknowledgment to the service recipient securely via the electronic network.

Claims

1. A method of allowing patients to schedule their own medical appointments on a computerized scheduling system, the method comprising the steps of operating the computerized scheduling system to:

communicate directly with the patient over the Internet to accept a patient request to schedule a medical appointment of a requested type;

automatically review a record of the patient'"'"'s completion of previous appointments;

automatically compare a measure of the patient'"'"'s completion of previous appointments to a predetermined threshold;

automatically determine whether the measure of the patient'"'"'s completion of previous appointments exceeds the predetermined threshold;

when the measure of the patient'"'"'s completion of previous appointments exceeds the predetermined threshold, automatically accept the patient'"'"'s request for the medical appointment on behalf of the patient;

when the measure of the patient'"'"'s completion of previous appointments does not exceed the predetermined threshold, deny the patient'"'"'s Internet request to schedule the medical appointment and require the patient to schedule the medical appointment through a human intermediary.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further includes operating the computerized scheduling system to:

create at least one electronic ticket identifying a given patient and allowing the patient to schedule at least one medical appointment of a predetermined type as determined by the physician;

the ticket having a status of unused or appointment completed; and

automatically schedule the medical appointment on behalf of the patient only if the status is unused and the requested type is the predetermined type of the electronic ticket.

3. The method of claim 2 further including the step of:

when the appointment is scheduled, changing the ticket status to appointment completed when the patient completes the appointment.

4. The method of claim 3 further including the step of:

after enrollment, accepting instructions from the patient to cancel an enrolled appointment and changing the status of the ticket to unused.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further includes operating the computerized scheduling system to:

automatically schedule the medical appointment on behalf of the patient only if appointment times are available in a first set of appointment times; and

when appointment times are not available in the first set of appointment times, refer the patient to a human intemiediary to schedule the medical appointment in second times other than the first set of appointment times.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the medical appointment is scheduled in a database providing an integrated patient medical record.

7. A computerized scheduling system allowing patients to schedule their own medical appointments comprising a stored program executing on an electronic computer, the stored program executing the program to:

communicate directly with the patient over the Internet to accept a patient request to schedule a medical appointment of a requested type;

automatically review a record of the patient'"'"'s completion of previous appointments;

automatically compare a measure of the patient'"'"'s completion of previous appointments to a predetermined threshold;

automatically determine whether the measure of the patient'"'"'s completion of previous appointments exceeds the predetermined threshold;

when the measure of the patient'"'"'s completion of previous appointments exceeds the predetermined threshold, automatically accept the patient'"'"'s request for the medical appointment on behalf of the patient;

when the measure of the patient'"'"'s completion of previous appointments does not exceed the predetermined threshold, deny the patient'"'"'s Internet request to schedule the medical appointment and require the patient to schedule the medical appointment through a human intermediary.

8. The computerized scheduling system of claim 7 wherein the stored program further executes to:

create at least one electronic ticket identifying a given patient and allowing the patient to schedule at least one medical appointment of a predetermined type as determined by the physician;

the ticket having a status of unused or appointment completed; and

automatically schedule the medical appointment on behalf of the patient only if the status is unused and the requested type is the predetermined type of the electronic ticket.

9. The computerized scheduling system of claim 8 wherein the stored program further executes to:

when the appointment is scheduled, change the ticket status to appointment completed when the patient completes the appointment.

10. The computerized scheduling system of claim 9 wherein the stored program further executes to:

after enrollment, accept instructions from the patient to cancel an enrolled appointment and changing the status of the ticket to unused.

11. The computerized scheduling system of claim 7 wherein the stored program further executes to:

automatically schedule the medical appointment on behalf of the patient only if appointment times are available in a first set of appointment times; and

when appointment times are not available in the first set of appointment times, refer the patient to a human intermediary to schedule the medical appointment in second times other than the first set of appointment times.

12. The computerized scheduling system of claim 7 wherein the medical appointment is scheduled in a database providing an integrated patient medical record.