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An Patients appointment system with modern techniques to Reduce Outpatient waiting time in APEX hospital Jaipur: An analytical Study
A Report of Project Work Submitted in Partial Fulfillments of The Requirements for the Award of Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ANAND KUMAR SAGAR ENROLMENT No:-BM11/023 Under The Guidance of Assistant Prof. Dr. SANDESH KUMAR SHARMA

NIMS Institute of Management & Computer Sciences NIMS University Rajasthan Jaipur- 303001 Rajasthan

NIMS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND COMPUTER SCIENCES

Jaipur 303 001 RAJASTHAN

BONAFIDE & FORWARDING CERTIFICATE

It is to certify that the Anand Kumar Sagar S/O Mr.Navel Kishor Sah is a bonafide student of this institute with enrolment number BM11/023 Based on the written consent of the faculty guide Assistant Prof. Dr. Sandesh kumar Sharma we are forwarding his project report titled Patients appointment system with modern techniques to Reduce Outpatient waiting time in APEX hospital Jaipur: An analytical Study for further evaluation to The Controller of Examinations NIMS University, Jaipur Rajasthan.

Ms. PallaviTomar (Director NIMS,IM&CS)

Certified that this dissertation is approved in quality and form

External Examiner

Internal Examiner

NIMS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND COMPUTER SCIENCES Faculty Guides Certificate TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN
This is to certify that the dissertation titled Patients appointment system with modern techniques to Reduce Outpatient waiting time in APEX hospital Jaipur: An analytical Study is a bonafide work done by Anand Kumar Sagar S/o Mr. Navel Kishor Sah under my guidance in partial fulfillment of Master of Business Administration programme of NIMS University Rajasthan. This report has been checked by me on the basis of the rough draft submitted and the view expressed in the report is only that of the researcher and not of this institute.

Date: Place: -

Assistant Prof. Dr.Sandesh kumar Sharma

NIMS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT & COMPUTER SCIENCES

NIMS UNIVERSITY,JAIPUR,RAJASTHAN

STUDENT DECLARATION

I do hereby declare that the project work title Patients appointment system with modern techniques to Reduce Outpatient waiting time in APEX hospital Jaipur: An analytical Study is a record of bonafide work done by me under the supervision of Assistant Prof.Dr Sandesh kumar Sharma, NIMS Institute of Management & Computer Sciences Jaipur- 303001 and submitted to NIMS University, Rajasthan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree of Master of Business Administration.

Anand Kumar Sagar

MBA (HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT +IT ) NIMS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT & COMPUTER SCIENCE NIMS UNIVERSITY, JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Though it is difficult to express thanks in words, but it is pleasure to express my gratitude to all those who in their own helped me in accomplishing this work .Firstly I humbly express my respect and full gratitude to Dr. . Sudhinder Singh Chawhan the Principal of NIMS University, Jaipur for providing all the requisites. I am obliged to Director of the APEX Hospital for granting the permission to do my project. I am very much delegated to thank manager of APEX Hospital for being continuous source of inspirations to me. I am grateful to my faculty member Dr.Sandesh Kumar Sharma who have encouraged and guided me throughout my project .At last with special attention I give heartily thank to all the staff members of departments of APEX Hospital under whom guidance, I could perform my work successfully

THANK YOU

Anand Kumar Sagar

S.NO 1 2

PARTICULATES Executive Summary Chapter-I Introduction of Topic Chapter-II Profile of The Organization& Literature Review Chapter-III Research Methodology Chapter-IV Data Analysis & Interpretation Chapter-V Finding & Inferences Chapter-VI Conclusion & Recommendation Chapter-VII Bibliography

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SYPNOSIS
PROJECT TITLE : Patients appointment system with modern techniques to Reduce Outpatient waiting time in APEX hospital Jaipur: An analytical Study : APEX HOSPITAL : ANAND KUMAR SAGAR : DR.SANDESH KUMAR SHARMA (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) NIMS UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT IM & CS : 45 DAYS

ORGANISATION PROJECT DONE BY PROJECT GUIDE

DURATION

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:-

INTRODUCTION:Patient scheduling is an integral part of daily work for healthcare professionals, from family practices to large clinics, from physician offices to hospitals. Medical office staff has to schedule patients for dentist, optometrist, ophthalmologist, surgeon, psychiatrist and other general care and specialist appointments. Scheduling quickly becomes complicated if the doctor is practicing in several clinics and travels between medical offices. Appointments need to be coordinated, medical support staffs have to be constantly aware of all new patients and doctors schedule. Management software. With the help of online scheduling, medical office staff can easily manage doctors Patient scheduling can be greatly simplified with capable online scheduling tools and appointment schedules, patient records and individual appointments. Small medical practices can even allow patients to self-schedule their appointments online. Many doctors and small medical offices have already established their own web sites online scheduling is a great addition to any such web site, an invaluable tool for communicating with patients. Appointment Quest Online Appointment Manager allows you to:

Schedule patients for exams, visits, treatments or procedures Securely access appointment calendars from multiple offices Easily navigate daily, weekly and monthly schedules Search, browse and update patient contact information database Create hardcopy and backup of appointments and patient records Schedule patients for seasonal programs such as vaccinations Schedule recurring appointments for multiple patient visits Cross-schedule between multiple medical offices and clinics Optionally allow patients to self-schedule appointments online And more

For several years since Appointment Quest online scheduling services have been introduced, Online Appointment Manager has become a scheduling tool of choice for many healthcare professionals in U.S. and Canada. Its ease of use, functionality and reliability made it possible for many medical offices to dramatically simplify patient scheduling and to gain gratitude from patients for such a convenient way to make appointments.

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To find out how Appointment Quest Online Appointment Manager can help your medical practice with patient scheduling and appointment management, open your free trial account today. Appointment Quest takes patient, doctor and staff privacy and information security very seriously by enforcing high standards of electronic and physical security on Appointment Quest premises and data center space. Appointment Quest does not collect, sell, share, disclose or provide customer, appointment and service provider information to any third parties unless required by law. For more information, please see Appointment Quest Privacy Policy. Many doctors and their office staff are looking for the right HIPAA-compliant services and software that will somehow transform their medical practice into being HIPAA-compliant. The fact is that software tools and software services cannot be HIPAA-compliant, simply because software is a tool and not a business practice. It is important to understand that the term "HIPAA Compliance" refers to an organizational obligation and procedural integrity, but not to a technical specification or particular software tool. HIPAA regulations do not apply to Appointment Quest scheduling services since Appointment Quest does not perform insurance, payment or related transactions (HIPAA transactions), and does not collect any medical history from patients. Nevertheless, Appointment Quest Online Appointment Manager implements multiple features that help with HIAA-related issues, such as timed auto-logouts, protected passwords, strong 128-bit secure SSL encryption, patient registration and login options, just to name a few. Patient contact and appointment information is kept private and shared only with account administrator and authorized personnel.

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APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

Appointment scheduling often becomes a complicated task for healthcare professionals in hospitals, large clinics, multispecialty practices and other healthcare establishments. The reasons can range from a heavy flow of patient traffic to a physician that practices in a number of clinics and moves from one medical office to the other. An inefficient appointment management system can cause overlapping appointments, no-shows, general patient dissatisfaction, and revenue losses.

The Right Strategy for Better Patient Scheduling Efficiency

In the present age, many healthcare professionals turn to a combination of: Phone-based scheduling Computerized appointment scheduling using state-of-the-art patient scheduling software. This coupled with the services of outsourcing solution providers helps them achieve better efficiency, and save time.

Convenience, Ease and Speed

Some of the advantages of the above mentioned strategy of appointment scheduling for healthcare professionals are: Multiple-user accessibility. Depending on whats most suitable for the office; appointments can be viewed by day, week or month; by treatment or equipment room; or by multiple providers. Makes easy cross-scheduling and the scheduling of recurring appointments. No time lag in identifying appointment availability for clients and patients. Patients can conveniently be scheduled for visits, procedures, treatments, and exams. 24/7 accessibility Helps to track business and employee performance. Customer letters and appointment reminders can be generated. Patients can easily be referred to other offices. Enables updating of patient contact information. Enables easy identification of confirmed, unconfirmed and checked in, checked out, cancelled or missed appointments. Reduces scheduling mistakes.

Lightens the Burden of Managing a Medical Practice

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Online appointment scheduling for healthcare professionals is a wonderful addon to their website, if they have one. It can lighten the hard work associated with managing a medical practice. More time on hand to commit to patient care, better patient compliance and fiscal viability are other rewards. Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a medical transcription company and a services company. Our medical appointment scheduling solutions are designed to benefit healthcare professionals. Efficient appointment scheduling in healthcare establishes a connection between efficient healthcare services and timely access to these services. A good appointment system would: even out workflow enable health systems to respect provider and patient preferences whilst matching demand and supply reduce the thronging of people in waiting rooms The efficiency of an appointment scheduling system is reflected in patient satisfaction and revenue gains.

Paper-based and Web-based Appointment Scheduling

Any medical practice which has to handle scores of patients and medical responsibilities cannot afford to waste too much time and money on patient scheduling. This is particularly the case if a physician manages his own medical office. It is no longer worthwhile to continue with the primitive paper based scheduling system. Appointment books are limiting and annoying. The many cancellations and scribbles are enough to confuse and frustrate anyone. Whats more, it creates unnecessary delays when a patient wants to fix an appointment .

Web-based appointment scheduling offers several advantages including:

Faster patient scheduling Multiple user accessibility Appointments can be accessed by day, month or week Enables creation of appointment reports and other reports Automatic generation of email appointment reminders Makes for easy appointment confirmation and rescheduling Minimizes no-shows

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The Outsourcing Option

A number of hospitals, clinics and multi-specialty practices outsource their scheduling work to competent BPO companies. This frees up more time for them to devote to patient care. These BPO companies would answer calls for the client medical establishment on a 24/7 basis just as a call center does, reducing hang-ups from probable patients. They may also offer online appointment scheduling, using either the clients scheduling software or their own online software. Incorporation of the right appointment scheduling strategy in healthcare is undoubtedly an important thing to consider to avoid loss of patients and profit.

Different Kinds of Patient Appointment Scheduling

Patient appointment scheduling varies depending on the type of health care facility involved and the reason for the visit, whether a routine medical appointment, a specific medical condition or an urgent matter. Additionally, there may be some distinctions, depending on whether the doctor works in an individual practice or in a group practice with several other doctors.

Primary Care Practice

A significant segment of the population uses one of the most broad-based types of physician practice as a primary care provider, usually either a family practice or an internist office. Some patients may use a specialist as a primary care provider, such as a gynecologist for women or an endocrinologist for patients with diabetes or a thyroid condition. In the broad-based category of primary care practices there are typically three types of appointment designations available. Primary care practices may offer specific time blocks for full physical appointments, follow up visits and urgent care appointments. Most primary care practices reserve some time blocks for seeing urgent care cases on a same day or next day basis.

Specialist

A patient's medical requirements for specialized care with a particular doctor can range from a single visit to an ongoing series of appointments that occur over a period of years; some patients may see several specialists over the same interval of time. Within a specialist's practice, appointment scheduling may fall into such categories as a consult or the initial visit through referral by another doctor, initial appointments that do not require a referral and follow up appointments. While some specialists may need to see patients on an urgent

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care basis, such as cardiologists, many specialists are unlikely to see patients except as scheduled.

Inpatient

Inpatient care at a convalescent or skilled nursing facility also incorporates some events that require scheduling within the facility. Appointments in these settings deal with circumstances that require the availability of particular medical personnel, not necessarily doctors; these may include medical device technicians, physical therapists, visiting nurses and respiratory therapists. The appointment scheduler at the inpatient facility may need to make out-bound calls to the patient's doctor for the scheduling of diagnostic testing, such as computed axial tomography (CAT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or ultrasound testing, that the inpatient facility does not provide. For testing protocols that the facility has the capacity to provide on-site, the appointment scheduler must obtain information from all the technicians involved in providing these diagnostic protocols to avoid scheduling conflicts.

Technologies

Medical facilities use proprietary software to streamline their appointment scheduling. Increasingly, medical office practices are also using automated appointment reminder software that initiates a telephone reminder call to the patient a day or two before an upcoming appointment. Also, those doctors' offices that work with hospitals increasingly make use of shared computer systems, allowing for more efficient handling of medications, treatment plans and payment by insurance companies.

What Are the Features of the Appointment Scheduling System?

Appointment scheduling software automates many of the tasks of scheduling appointments, changing appointments, sending appointment reminders by phone or other social media and ensuring appointments don't overlap. When an organization uses an appointment scheduling tool, it can make office management more efficient. There are many software systems to choose from and numerous online appointment scheduling systems that allow customers and clients to schedule appointment times.

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Required Features

Some features of an appointment scheduling software system are assumed such as a calendar and a place to input customer or client data. As an organization, you have to determine if there are any other features you must have to make the system optimal for your environment. Create a list of features your company considers important. For example, you may need multiple employees at different locations to access the software. Or perhaps employees need to retrieve appointment logs remotely from a cell phone. Before selecting software, determine what you need the software to do. This will help narrow the focus and ensure the system works for your organization's special needs.

Ease of Use

A system should not be difficult to use. If you need to go to multiple screens to set an appointment and gather a client's data, the process can be time consuming. The software should have features to make work easier such as client data retrieval for repeat customers. This helps the person setting the appointment, and it improves customer relations. Another aspect for using the software is employee training. Using the system should be easy to teach.

Customization

An appointment system should be customizable. For example, you may want your company logo and text visible, especially if you set up an online system where the customer can set their own appointment. You may also need features such as multiple location scheduling or the ability to select a specific person for an appointment. If you run a salon for example, customers may prefer their usual stylist. The system must allow this selection. Other customization features include technical aspects such as running on your computer system or web page.

How to Improve Telephone Appointment Scheduling in Medical Clinics

Automated appointment systems increase efficiency in medical clinics. Although live operators still might speak with a few patients, medical clinics will allocate money more effectively by using telephone appointment scheduling. With an automated system, multiple patients schedule appointments whenever convenient (morning, afternoon, evening) and timely communicate essential information, such as leaving voicemails instead of waiting on hold.

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Instructions
o

Review each system prompt and eliminate unnecessary words. You should create a succinct message and maintain essential menu selections that clients can navigate through easily. Maintain an option for patients to connect with clinic staff during business hours. Develop a unique system to identify patients, such as client patient identification number. By not using social security numbers or health insurance information, you minimize exposure to security breaches. Expand the automated system to accept appointment changes and send reminders a few days before appointments along with instructions (avoid eating, be prepared for lab tests). Another feature involves prescription refills that patients could send in advance. After approving the request, authorized clinic staff could notify the local pharmacy. Analyze the number of telephone lines your system can support. Consider upgrading from analog to digital or to support more lines simultaneously without dropping any calls. Many systems include tracking features like caller ID so that you can view and save the telephone numbers that patients use. Create options in other languages, such as if some of your clients primarily speak Mandarin, Arabic, or Spanish. You might provide only inbound (client initiated) calls with different language options or both inbound and outbound (clinic initiated) calls.

How to Schedule Appointments Efficiently

An appointment-crammed schedule can take on a life of its own, gobbling up your workdays like a ravenous beast. Tame your schedule by adopting some of the following simple techniques. The secret to success lies in applying them firmly and consistently.

Instructions
o

Block out time on your schedule for solitary work. Guard this appointment with yourself fiercely. Make it clear you'll accept no phone calls or pop-in visits. If possible, escape to a solitary spot during this time. Read 188 Organize Your Workday.

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o

Deflect excessive requests for your time from co-workers. Ask those who squander your time to submit written proposals, or schedule meeting times with them far enough out so that they might just solve the issues on their own. Allot blocks of time for making and taking phone calls. Avoid phone tag by suggesting these times to callers. Take a list of calls to make when you have a drive of longer than 10 minutes. Cluster out-of-office meetings geographically. Traveling to and from appointments uses up vast amounts of time. See 4 Run Errands Efficiently. Communicate clearly how much time you have to meet with people, and then enforce the finish times. Schedule appointments in your own office back to back so the arrival of one person encourages the departure of the other. Keep track of how much of your workweek you devote to appointments. If the amount exceeds 50 percent, evaluate whether other people's agendas are overpowering yours.

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RESARCH MEHTODOLOGY:-

Appraisal system:Performance appraisal design :-

1 Design: -

Personal interaction. Questionnaire.

2 Observation: -

Personal observation. Indirect observation.

SAMPLING DESIGN:Sampling is the process of obtaining about an entire population by examining only a part of it. Sampling plans calls for three decisions. a) Sample unit b) Sample size c) Sampling procedure

The design to be adopted for the study will be based on convenient sampling. The population for the study will consist of employees in the APEX hospital.

SAMPLE UNIT APEX HOSPITAL

SAMPLE SIZE 50 Employees SAMPLING PROCEDURE:For the study, respondent were selected on the basis of random sampling.

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TYPE OF THE STUDY:The study is a descriptive study. It is based on data collected through structured questionnaire from the respondent. SOUCE OF THE DATA:The study requires both primary and secondary data. PRIMARY SOUCE: Questionnaires Interviews SECONDARY SOURCE: Indirect observation Library and research work Internet, web pages and blogs Articles Books

Secondary data will be used to analyze the primary data in light of real world situations. ANALYSIS OF THE DATA:The primary data will be analyzed with the help of statistical tools and techniques. DATA PRESENATION TOOLS USED:Primary data was collected through the questionnaire by distributing questionnaires; questionnaires with both close ended and open ended questions have been used as sample respondents. On the basis of the tables, the facts are presented in the form of various charts. LIMITATIONS OF STUDY: The study is confined to APEX only. The interpretations and recommendations applicable to this cooperative.

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The study was conducted on the assumptions that the information is given by respondent all are correct. Sample size is restricted to 100 respondents. Time constraints.

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HOSPITAL PROFILE:-

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BIBLIOGRAPHY; https://www.appointment.com/blog/2011/appointment-scheduling-for-healthcareprofessionals.html http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/appointment-scheduling-inhealthcare-857985.html http://www.appointmentquest.com/scheduling/healthcare

23 http://outsourcestrategies.blogspot.in/2010/04/appointment-scheduling-forhealthcare.html http://www.ehow.com/info_8497531_3-kinds-patient-appointment-scheduling.html

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