Affected user(s):
Patients using the online portal to book their appointments.
The issue also indirectly affects physicians and administrative staff, as it creates unnecessary workload and scheduling complications.
This issue has been observed by multiple clinics and is becoming increasingly frequent.
Task affected:
This occurs during the online appointment booking process through the patient portal.
Patients are currently able to book more than one appointment on the same day, even with different doctors.
This behavior goes against internal clinic policies, which often limit patients to one appointment per day.
Impact:
The issue is happening frequently and is expected to grow as more patients use the portal.
Clinics must manually detect and cancel double bookings, which is time-consuming and prone to errors.
Implementing a warning message or automatic block would save time, reduce confusion for patients, and ensure compliance with clinic policies.
Estimated impact: several minutes saved per incident, improved scheduling integrity, and a smoother workflow for front desk staff.
Current state:
Currently, there is no alert or restriction in place within the portal.
Patients can unknowingly book multiple appointments on the same day.
Clinics are forced to manually intervene to clean up these situations after the fact.
Competition consideration:
The client mentioned that in their previous EMR (Wolf), a pop-up message would appear if a patient attempted to book more than one appointment in a single day.
This preventive mechanism worked well and is something they would like to see implemented in MYLE.