Appointment Booking
Systems
Custom database for Bookings and Appointments
We will use Microsoft Access to tailor your
appointments or booking system to the way you work. You will be able to integrate the software with your existing (or new) office administration database. You will then have easy access to full client details, including dates of previous bookings, email or telephone conversations, product sales, together with other relevant information. Invoicing can be built into the system, or financial information can be integrated with a separate accountancy package such as Sage Accounts.
A Microsoft Access Booking and Appointment System
Living is a Bristol based charity offering impartial advice and
information about equipment, or products, which help people with
physical and/or mental impairments become be more independent.
The Problem
Our client has to manage the allocation of staff and specialist rooms.
Each room is equipped with products and adaptations for a particular area in the home, such as kitchen or bathroom. Service users can try out equipment with a qualified member of staff on hand offering impartial advice and information.
When booking appointments, the specific room had to be
reserved
together with a staff member with the relevant knowledge and skills.
As availability was kept in separate diaries, finding free slots matching both the room required and a suitable staff member was a tricky process.
This was further complicated, as many of the
Occupational Therapists
have complex work schedules.
Some work regular hours on a full or
part time basis, but book out dates when they will not be available
such as holidays. Others provide a list of ad-hoc dates when they
will be available to work on a monthly basis. These have to be booked in as available to work, before they can be booked for an appointment.
Finally, many of the volunteers working on reception
or on data input duties have impairments. Some can only use a keyboard,
whilst others use specialist input devices.
The Solution
PC Access developed a system for Living that reflects
the way they allocate their bookings. It automatically finds the next available slot matching both the room and the staff member. Staff can now see daily bookings at a glance, ordered by room showing which staff members will be using each room. Alternatively, they can switch to a screen listing appointments by staff member, which shows the rooms that they will be using.
Day sheets are printed, one per appointment, for distributing to
staff members at the start of each day. These supply all the information
they need for their consultation, together with sections for making their own notes which is fed back into system later.
The user interface is very easy to use, and has been optimised
to match precisely the way staff enter and retrieve information. The customised screens allow staff to drill down with keyboard “hot keys”, mouse or a range of specialist input devices. With very little training needed to use the system, little time is lost when inducting new volunteers and part time staff.
The booking system has been integrated with their existing
enquiry system (previously developed by PC Access Ltd). This logs details of all calls and visits to the centre, collects statistics for analysis, and provides the reports as required by their funders.
Clive Peters, Finance and IT manager, Living (dlc)
- a Community Interest Company:
We have been working with PC Access for over 8 years.
We only had a rough idea of what we wanted when we started
developing our data recording system, but each year we have
expanded it and added more sophistication. PC Access have always
delivered the upgrades within budget and on time.
That the system has proved to be so reliable is testament in itself to
the technical expertise of PC Access but they have achieved all this whilst remaining very human and approachable