BACKGROUND

Medical appointments are commonly associated with notoriously long wait times. According to numerous reviews from patients, the number one complaint is the wait time to see the doctor. For instance, online review sites allow patients to comment and provide corresponding star ratings for service providers. On these sites, low star ratings for physicians are often associated with comments citing long wait times. Often, reviewers complain of waiting from between thirty minutes to two hours. These reviews indicate that patient satisfaction with a physician's care can be heavily influenced by wait times, and that excessive wait times can lead to negative reviews of a physician's services.

Accordingly, improving the wait time for a patient can greatly improve the patient's satisfaction with the physician. In turn, this satisfaction will improve the patient's subjective feelings about their care, which can lead to more effective treatment and service. Specifically, when the patient is in a positive frame of mind at the beginning of the examination, the appointment naturally flows more smoothly. In addition, physicians often note that when they are behind schedule, they often spend time apologizing to the patient about being late, which reduces the amount of time available for actual patient care. By reducing or eliminating patient wait times, physicians can be more efficient and patients can have more positive experiences at appointments. Consequently, there is a need for improving patient wait times for medical appointments.

SUMMARY

Provided are various mechanisms and processes relating to medical appointment progress tracking.

In one aspect, which may include at least a portion of the subject matter of any of the preceding and/or following examples and aspects, the system includes a location sensor that tracks when a medical professional begins an examination of a patient by detecting when the medical professional logs into a computer to access the first patient's medical file. The system also includes a medical schedule processor that logs this time and compares this time with scheduling information to predict whether future appointments on that day will be delayed. The scheduling information is cryptographically separated from Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) information. The system further includes a notification interface that notifies upcoming patients if their appointments will be substantially delayed.

According to various examples, a process for notifying upcoming patients of schedule delays includes logging a time when a medical professional begins an appointment with a particular patient. This time is compared with scheduling information to determine whether future appointments in the schedule will be delayed. Based on this comparison and a prediction of delays for upcoming appointments, notifications are sent to upcoming patients if their appointments will be substantially delayed. Scheduling information is cryptographically separated from HIPAA information.

These and other embodiments are described further below with reference to the figures.

