The Appointment Book.

Available form PC Mates Inc, Baltimore, MD 21212. System requirements: IBM PC XT, AT, PS/2 or 100% compatible, DOS 2.0 or higher, 512K bytes of memory, floppy-disk drive, hard-disk drive, monochrome or color monitor, a printer with IBM-compatible graphics. Price: $389, Additional Features: $109

The Appointment Book is scheduling software for the professional office. It was evaluated on a Leading Edge 386SX, 16MZ, with an external VGA monitor, and on and IBM 386 with a monochrome monitor. The base cost gives you everything you need to run the software, and the "Additional Features" disk provides supplements to the original program such as automatic recurring appointments, manual recurring appointments, multiple booking, and booking weight/percentage. I found that most of these additional features would be used on a regular basis. The software manufacturer is aware of this and will include the additional features with the basic software in the future.

Installation was straightforward. The software is menu driven and does not support a mouse. On-line help is available, although there is no toll-free number available at the present time. The accompanying manual is basic, but well written.

The software enables you to schedule patients in an office or department that has from 1 to 73 therapists. The Appointment Book sets itself apart from other medical scheduling software with its ability to allow the viewer to see the schedules of multiple therapists and to book patients for a series of appointments. The capability to schedule patients for specific resources such as a whirlpool or treadmill is also included. This is especially helpful in avoiding conflicts over specific resources that can cost the clinic or department time, money, and patient convenience. There is also the ability to cancel and reschedule patient appointments, print out the individual therapist's or clinic's daily schedule, and also limit the number of patients seen per hour by each therapist. For multidisciplinary centers, there is the ability to automatically book a patient with successive practitioners or resources. The system was tested in a private outpatient clinic with two therapists. The secretary who normally schedules appointments used the software. Although it was tested in a small clinic, there is no reason why it would not serve a large department well. Because, scheduling by hand consumes a large amount of time and creates numerous mistakes, I would recommend this software as an excellent tool to decrease errors and increase productivity and office efficiency.