Doctor Appointments Made Easy!

To implement an efficient system to schedule and manage doctor consultations, we will design an APEX Application titled Doctor Appointments Made Easy which will use the Workflow component. To design such an application, we need to

  • break down the business logic into simple executable steps
  • identify the sequences and conditions according to which these steps should be executed
  • identify the participants in the organization that are involved in the business

Note: In APEX Workflow terminology – we refer to an executable step as an Activity and a sequence/condition as a Connection.

Breaking down the Business Logic

The following table shows the steps  involved in scheduling and managing medical appointments. It also shows the actors for each step.

 

Steps in the Medical Appointment Business Process
Step No. Step Step Type Actor
1 Call hospital for appointment with a doctor Manual Patient
2
  • Login to the application
  • Fill patient details
  • Submit appointment request on behalf of patient
 Manual Hospital Management Representative/Staff
3 Check if the requested doctor is busy on the requested appointment date/time. Automatic Workflow
4 If the doctor is busy, send No-Appointment email to patient and close the appointment request. Automatic Workflow
5 If the doctor is available, raise an Approval Task for the Doctor to confirm the appointment request Automatic Workflow
6 Log in to the application to access the appointment request Manual Doctor
7 Approve the appointment request Manual Doctor
8 Reject the appointment request Manual Doctor
9 If the doctor rejects, send No-Appointment email to patient and close the appointment request. Automatic Workflow
10 If the doctor approves, enter Appointment details in the system with status ‘Confirmed’ Automatic Workflow
11 Check if the patient had a previous appointment with the same doctor in the last 7 days Automatic Workflow
12 If the above is true, mark this as a followup visit and donot charge fees and raise an invoice with zero payment request for the patient to confirm Automatic Workflow
13 If the above is false, mark this as a new visit and raise an invoice with fees and payment request for the patient to  confirm Automatic Workflow
14 In both cases send email notifying the patient of the appointment confirmation and the invoice request Automatic Workflow
15 Login to the application to confirm the invoice Manual Patient
16 If the patient does not confirm the invoice within a specific period, send a No Appointment email and close the appointment request Automatic Workflow
17 If the patient confirms the invoice, update the appointment status to PAID in the system of records Automatic Workflow
18 Wait until the appointment is completed Automatic Workflow
19 Raise a feedback request to the patient Automatic Workflow
20 Login to the application and provide feedback Manual Patient
21 If the patient does not complete the feedback request within a specified period, close the appointment request. Automatic Workflow
22 If the patient provides a feedback, send a Thank You email to the patient and then close the appointment request. Automatic Workflow

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The no. of automated steps in the above use-case gives us an idea of the importance of workflow in business processes.

Next, we draw a flowchart based on the automated steps. Flow charts help us to visualize the flow of the business logic.

Flowchart

Flowchart showing the appointment process

In the next section we will create the Doctor Appointments Made Easy Application.

 

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