Search Engine |
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The search engine is one of the cleverest bits of emma. When you wish to create an appointment, you have 2 ways of putting it in the diary. You may directly insert it into the diary for the doctor and, providing he is capable of doing the consultation (ie you're not trying to create a physio appointment with a dentist), the system will let you book it. But what happens if you're trying to book a health screen, or a multi-part appointment? Imagine a scenario where you have 3 nurses working and 4 doctors and you wish to book a two-part appointment where you have 30 minutes with the nurse, then 45 minutes with the doctor (or even a 3,4 or 5 part with additional bits). How do you look at all the diaries for both doctors and nurses at once to determine who is available. On a paper system you would have to align all the diaries with a ruler and look for holes. With emma, all you do is use the search engine. The search engine knows the specialities of all the nurses and doctors, and it knows all their availibility. The search engine even knows that you don't want to book more than 2 (or however many you want) of these per day per doctor (because the doctors hate all the paperwork that goes with them) and also that you want to book people with lots of holes in their diary over people who have an empty day. It also knows that you like to cluster appointments together because who wants an empty diary all day with nothing but a 4pm health screen?  All you do is select the appointment type you want, select a location (if you have multiple clinics), a sex of the doctor or a specific doctor and a date range. The system instantly provides you with a recommended list of appointments (leaving out the 4pm health screens). If you want to see all the appointments, just push show all (with the 4pm health screens). Now this is all very clever for your staff and makes their lives much easier, but imagine what would happen if you gave this power to your patients! |