DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE HOSPITAL APPOINTMENT

AND SCHEDULING SYSTEM

A Project Proposal
Presented to the faculty
of Information Technology Department
of Southern Philippines College,
Cagayan De Oro City

In Partial Fulfilment
Of the Requirements for the Subject
ITE301 Quantitative Methods

By:
Anastacio Khate Whizlet V.
Questadio, Joemar
Banquerigo, Renzo

Grachael Mae Opura

Subject Adviser

October 2022
 CHAPTER 1

1. Introduction

Technology has made human labor faster and easier in every work phase today.
Internet into the field of health care has paved the way for the use of an internet-based
appointment and scheduling system for visiting Physicians. Reducing time and effort in
accomplishing tasks along with securing the Patients health are essential for the
hospital to survive in the modern world. Given the current situation with, COVID-19
pandemic, several Patients went to the hospitals to seek medical help. Appointment and
scheduling system allow sorting out Patients visits throughout the day to maintain social
distancing.

The Hospital Appointment and Scheduling System is a web-based online

platform for appointment and scheduling between the Doctor and Patients and with the
support of the technology everything has been convenient. Appointment and scheduling
systems have been extensively used to reduce patient waiting times and waiting-room
congestion. With manual booking routines, many hospitals have a delinquent with
Patients not showing up for an appointment that is why in medical field Hospital
Appointment and Scheduling System is extremely significant.

The proposed Hospital Appointment and Scheduling System will offer more on
consultations that composes of six (6) Doctors and its specializations currently as
Radiologist, Cardiologist, Neurologist, Psychiatrist, Dentist and Paediatrician. The
HASS can add other Specializations and multiple Doctors on it. The Hospital
Appointment and Scheduling System allows the Physicians to manage Patients
Schedule, Patients can freely book an appointment and schedules in desired time and
date and have it reserved in Patients name. The admin manages the appointment date
for available doctors of various dates and times. Each time a user logs in; Patients can
view the entire medical history as and when needed. At the same time a doctor may
view a patient's medical history. The system shows that the users can make their own
account by registering and using the Patients email. As the Hospital Appointment and
Scheduling System is developing rapidly, therefore, one can use the system to
overcome such problems and inconvenience for the patients.

2. Background of the study

The online appointment system is also known by many names such as booking
application, online scheduler, online scheduling system, and more. It is the most
commonly used web-based application to conveniently book Patients appointments
online via laptop, computer, smartphone, and any other web-connected devices. One of
the purposes of the proposed project Hospital Appointment and Scheduling System is to
make the hospital task much easier and convenient for both Patients and Physicians.
Medical staffs should make services accessible and available to the Patients and
Physicians, as people is increasingly having the need on medical attention. Since taking
appointment manually will take or waste a lot of time that would also possibly risk
someone’s life. The proposed Hospital Appointment and Scheduling System enable the
hospital to develop and improve its effectiveness and quality of the service. It also
enables hospitals and Physicians to better serve Patients and keep the task easier to
manage.

3. Statement of the problem

The aim of the study is to reduce the Patient waiting times at the hospital. A
common mistake when measuring waiting times is that the time between a Patient
arriving and the availability of the Physicians, and also the Patient will not be
entertained immediately in seeking medical attention. When many patients arrive at
the same time, for a drop-in consultation, there is a risk of crowding, which
contributes to long wait times. Eventually, after a long wait, those seeking medical
treatment become impatient and decide to leave their appointment without a
consultation; it is indeed a horrible experience dealing with a broken process. Also, a
manual appointment routine is a very time-consuming task for hospitals.
4. Objective of the Study

4.1 General Objectives

The general objective of the project is to develop a Hospital Appointment and

Scheduling System that will make the Patients booking appointments and schedules
more efficient and hassle-free.

4.2 Specific Objectives

Specifically, the proposed project aims the following objectives:

 Gather necessary information that will be used for the development of a

Hospital Appointment and Scheduling System.
 Design a system that will:
 Admin to manage the Doctors.
 Admin to manage users.
 Admin to view the total appointments.
 Admin to manage Patients.
 Physician to manage the Patients.
 Physician to view the appointment transactions.
 Physician to change password.
 Patient to register and create an account.
 Patient to book appointment and schedule.
 Patient to view booked appointments.
 Patient to view the medical records.
 Develop a system based on the design requirements.
 Test and evaluate the functionality and usability of the Hospital Appointment
and Scheduling System.
5. Significance of the Study

The proposed project is deemed beneficial to the following individuals or group:

Hospitals. The Hospital Appointment and Scheduling System can fully utilize the
time of the hospitals employees and staff.

Users/Patients. The Hospital Appointment and Scheduling System will help the
users to make their desired appointment and schedules more convenient and stress-
free.

Professional Medical Respondents/Physicians. The Hospital Appointment and

Scheduling System will help the Physicians in their work which they will be informed
into Patients schedule before a particular date and time and by that it can reduce an
exhausted feeling of Physicians and can create opportunities to serve more patients
per day.

Researchers. The researchers of the study will gain credits in developing a helpful
system for the medical field. This will contribute to their knowledge and skills as
programmers.

Future Researchers. The study can serve as their basis in doing their own version
of the project.
6. Scope & Limitation of the Study

Scope

The system has 3 user access levels, the system Admin, the Physicians and the
User/Patients. System administrator has the entire access to the system such as
adding Doctors, Specializations, etc. The Hospital Appointment and Scheduling
System have securely and conveniently booked the Patients appointments and
schedule request. System has data privacy and security and also has easily been
handled online with efficiency and without all the fuss that is associated with manual
appointment scheduling systems.

Limitations

This system will only cater within the public hospitals located in Cagayan De Oro
City, and can accommodate for consultations only. The User/Patient cannot delete
transactions history; user cannot pay their hospital bills using the system and cannot
have access to other users' appointments and status in the hospital.
Definition of Terms

For better knowledge of the terms used in the study, given terms are conceptually
defined as follows:

Terms Definitions
HASS Stands for Hospital Appointment and
Scheduling System.
Appointment An arrangement to meet a person or be
at a place at a certain time.

System Administrator Are normally tasked with the system

performance, design, and reliability, and
also a programming and scripting to
execute tasks and actions across the
system.

HASS- Stands for Hospital Appointment and Scheduling System.

Appointment- An arrangement to meet a person or be at a place at a certain time.

System Administrator- Are normally tasked with the system performance, design,
and reliability, and also a programming and scripting to execute tasks and actions
across the system.

Physicians- Are the ones who are assigned to consult and to input the vital signs of
the Patients, in the system.

Users/Patients- the one who will mainly use the system and the one who will book
the desired appointment and schedule.

Web-based Applications-Are systems that allows the users to book

accommodations, appointments, tickets and other services online and also an
 Interactive Internet Portals which, it is a website that work with user input such as
sign-up or register information.

CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this chapter contains a collection of related literature and research studies

which will serve as references of the researchers for greater insight and a deeper
comprehension of the study’s development.

2.1 FOREIGN LITERATURE

In the study of Zao P., et al. (2017), The Internet has recently emerged as
another means to make appointments. Web-based appointment scheduling has been a
popular research topic. Several studies conducted satisfaction surveys and found that
Web-based appointment scheduling is an extremely important feature, and most
patients would use the service again 

Akinode J.L., et al. (2017), stated that globally, health care sector is the pivot
and integral part of human lives. Thus, any error committed in the clinical services might
leads to defect or termination of life. Recently, information and Communication has
been used extensively to improve the various operations and services in the field of the
health care service. Patient appointment with the Doctor is one of the clinical services
that have been automated. Healthcare providers are motivated to reduce operation cost
while improving the quality of service. This has given rise to preventive medicine in
order to avoid disease, lessening the demand for emergency department and hospital
stays for sick people.

According to Wordingham J. (2021), the most common challenge for hospitals,

their managers, and employees is to reduce operational costs and reach efficiency
targets. Meanwhile, most hospitals operate with limited resources. Their quest to
streamline the organization has traditionally prevented patients from moving comfortably
throughout their visits and re-visits. Instead, patients are often placed in long waiting
lines while receiving minimal information throughout their stay.

In accordance with Habibi M.R., et al. (2019), online appointment scheduling

systems have been designed in response to the problems of the traditional ones. In
Iran, most outpatient clinics and our study population suffer from high patient’ no-show
rate and long waiting times because of not using online appointment scheduling system.
In this study, the effect of an online appointment scheduling system was investigated by
comparing the evaluation metrics of appointment scheduling before and after the
intervention. This before-after pilot study was conducted on ten outpatient clinics with
different specializations.

As reported by Sanjana (2019), some online scheduling systems for

appointments also have management of patient health records as part of the package.
The organization can create a single point from which to save, update, manage and
analyze patient information. Recording, reporting and analyzing such information helps
to efficiently manage the case file of a patient. All regularly recorded patient information,
along with a history of check-ups and associated medical tests, can be used to make
educated, carefully considered health care decisions. This can reduce the amount of
documentation and the time it takes to access physical files. It is also possible to avoid
redundant data entries about the same patient. In addition, the on going records of the
patient can be updated at each appointment, making patient information available for
easy and fast access in one place.

2.2 LOCAL LITERATURE

As mentioned by Mendoza S., et al. (2019), Patient’s satisfaction and comfort

are the priorities of every hospital. With the traditional appointment system, patients
have been experiencing long waiting time, which causes dissatisfaction. This study
designed a new web-based appointment scheduling system the “InstaSked” which
could reduce the waiting time experienced by patients. It is designed for patients
(booking their appointment), medical secretaries (managing patient list), Physicians,
and management (monitoring patients). 

According to Robielos R.A., et al. (2020), Due to the fact that patients arrive
unpredictably in the Outpatient Departments (OPD), doctor schedules must be
addressed accordingly to accommodate all entering patients while observing the
maximum 3-hour turnaround time. The study was conducted at a paediatric hospital in
Manila, Philippines.

In accordance to De Guzman M.R., et al. (2021), in special situations like a

pandemic, there will be a lot of limits and regulations, especially during an enhanced
community quarantine period. The country will be on lockdown during the said occasion,
people will not be allowed to go outside unless necessary as mass gatherings and
crowded places will be prohibited. Social distancing will be implemented that urges
people to maintain a one (1) meter distance from each other. The project would provide
improvement to the outpatient department of the hospital. Most especially during
extreme situations where there are a lot of limits and regulations that urge people to
stay indoors unless necessary. The senior citizens would be able to have a diagnosis
and will be able to avoid exposure in crowded places. They would also be encouraged
to use the appointment system since they do not have to wait for long queue times.
 As mentioned by Alejo J. (2021), the experience of a long waiting time and its
associated psychological discomfort can be overwhelming, and Philippine hospitals are
under pressure to find ways to reduce waiting time. This calls for more effective process
management, system improvement, health care improvement, and re-engineering of
existing processes to improve overall efficiency.

As claimed by the Maun N.A., et.al (2021), one of the purposes of this project
“Hospital Appointment System” is to make the hospital task much easier and convenient
for both patients and Physicians. The system allows the Physicians to manage their
booking slots online while the patients can freely pick any available slot to reserve. The
system will show the available and reserved slots. The system manages the scheduling
for available Physicians of various date and time; it will also show the future
appointments which will help the doctor manage their schedule

CHAPTER 3

To identify the modifications needed to resolve a real-world problem is critical as

well. This project aims to resolve the waiting time dilemma in a public hospital located in
Cagayan De Oro City. Also Users/Patients can use the system for necessary use.