EMR Appointment Features

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.
MoSCoW	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
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	Must

 

Feature 4	Audit Trail for each Appointment.
Use case	Often user will make more noise if someone modify or cancelled the existing appointments. Each appointment should be under the audit trail. The audit information should show the following information Who and When the appointment is created. Who and When the appointment is modified and what they have modified (old value and new value) Who and when and why the appointment is deleted. Who and When and why the appointment is cancelled.
MoSCoW	Must

 

Feature 5	Report. The solution should provide the following on the Appointment Report Module Print Appointment Lists by day by each resource or all resource. Print Cancellation Summary by Week or by Month. Print No Show Summary by Week or By Month Print Super bill of the practice for the appointment by day or by week.
Use case	Use case is quite self-explanatory.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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)
MoSCoW	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)
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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/. Normally each practice will maintain the test instruction for some lab test. That will be given to the patient at the time of check out or at the appointment booking.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	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.
MoSCoW	Could