scheduling interval solution
April 6, 2016 2:25 PM Subscribe
I need to schedule people for appointments at various intervals, ideally using some form of...software?, and I'd like to do it all in one go at the start. I guess this is a computer problem, but maybe it's a math problem. Shoot.
Someone will come to an appointment on a day (call it t1). Once they have come to an appointment, they will need to have appointments every week for the next four weeks, then at the two month mark from t1, four months from t1, nine months from t1, and 15 months from t1. (I'll refer to these later monthly visits as "checkpoints".)
That's the easy scenario
In real life, someone will come in for t1, and after four weeks of weekly appts (t1, t2, t3, t4), they may move to biweekly appointments for t5-t10. Then, they will need to have any follow-up visits at the (t1+2 months), (t1+4 months), etc. that they did not have. So an individual who had biweekly appointments for t5-t10 would already have had appointments at (t1+2 months) and at (t1+4 months), because these would be t6 and t10, respectively, for that patient.
Ideally, the system would allow us to schedule "base" appointments at t1, which we could then change at t4 as needed. An individual may find out at a biweekly t5 that they will only need to do the remaining checkpoint appts. An individual may find out at a biweekly t10 that they only need to do the remaining checkpoints.
This is making my head spin. There is a clear decision tree to follow, but I don't know how to make this happen without relying entirely on human input.
I'm feeling very this, so any input or conceptual help appreciated.
xoxo gossip girl
Someone will come to an appointment on a day (call it t1). Once they have come to an appointment, they will need to have appointments every week for the next four weeks, then at the two month mark from t1, four months from t1, nine months from t1, and 15 months from t1. (I'll refer to these later monthly visits as "checkpoints".)
That's the easy scenario
In real life, someone will come in for t1, and after four weeks of weekly appts (t1, t2, t3, t4), they may move to biweekly appointments for t5-t10. Then, they will need to have any follow-up visits at the (t1+2 months), (t1+4 months), etc. that they did not have. So an individual who had biweekly appointments for t5-t10 would already have had appointments at (t1+2 months) and at (t1+4 months), because these would be t6 and t10, respectively, for that patient.
Ideally, the system would allow us to schedule "base" appointments at t1, which we could then change at t4 as needed. An individual may find out at a biweekly t5 that they will only need to do the remaining checkpoint appts. An individual may find out at a biweekly t10 that they only need to do the remaining checkpoints.
This is making my head spin. There is a clear decision tree to follow, but I don't know how to make this happen without relying entirely on human input.
I'm feeling very this, so any input or conceptual help appreciated.
xoxo gossip girl
Best answer: Update: from extensive research, we can't find anything that meets our needs and are writing things into Access. Thanks!
posted by quadrilaterals at 8:41 AM on April 19, 2016
posted by quadrilaterals at 8:41 AM on April 19, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
This one says it handles complex recurring appointments:
http://www.mediware.com/scheduling/why-mediware-scheduling/patient-scheduling-features/
Searching online I also found a bunch of online appointment scheduling apps that seem to be aimed at small businesses. I'm sure it'll be a mixed bag in terms of which ones can handle your scenario but most of them seem to have a free tier so you can try a few of them and see what works.
http://www.appointy.com/
http://www.appointment-plus.com/
posted by duoshao at 4:58 PM on April 6, 2016