Smart SMS- based appointment management system for hospitals in rural area

Abstract

Nowadays, many hospitals are seeking for smart managing their operations. Based on the discussion with a local private hospital in Penang, Malaysia, there are problems in managing the appointments of dialysis patients. The dialysis center staffs currently having manual management system, where the staffs will call the patients one by one to find out whether they are available to fill the empty slots for the dialysis for the day. It is indeed troublesome for the staffs and the patients. Patients at times are not ready for filling the slots even though they wanted the dialysis, may be due to last minute arrangement for timing and transports. Thus, there is a need to have a system which can manage the appointments for dialysis patients. The purpose of the research is to automate the existing manual appointment system by the help of computerized devices, and to develop a dialysis appointment management system which is user-friendly, simple, fast and cost - effective. The main function of the system is to make an appointment and to store patient details, which will be an easier retrieval for the attendants. The system will identify the empty slots available, and will contact the patients to check the availability. Based on the input from the patients through Short Messaging System (SMS), the appointment will be sorted. The administrators can login to the Smart Appointment Management System using an authorized username and password for viewing and making changes manually.