Applied Information Technology And Computer Science Vol. 3 No.

1 (2022) 699-716
© Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia Publisher’s Office

AITCS
Homepage: http://publisher.uthm.edu.my/periodicals/index.php/aitcs
e-ISSN :2773-5141

Development of Online Booking System for

Medical Clinic

Abdulrahman Jamal Humaid1, Rozaida Ghazali1*

1
Fakulti Sains Komputer dan Teknologi Maklumat,
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, 86400, MALAYSIA

*Corresponding Author Designation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30880/aitcs.2022.03.01.047
Received 09 July 2021; Accepted 10 May 2022; Available online 31 May 2022

Abstract: Recently, increasing number of clinics has been an obvious trend in many
countries. This is mainly because the needs to providing medical services to increasing
patients due to various forms of diseases. Such scenario needs careful
attentions from the clinic’s management in order to provide appropriate services
to patients. One of the important tasks to ensure efficient health care services is
booking for medical appointment. With increasing number of patients, a systematic
appointment booking is crucial in order to provide an accurate and fast medical
treatment to patients. Conventional way of booking appointments time consuming
since it requires patients to go to the clinic, in which eventually resulting in an increase
in cost and effort. To overcome such problem, the appointment booking system can
be made online via the Internet. With an internet-based booking system, appointment
booking can be done from anywhere and at any time without having to go to clinic,
therefore is time- and cost-effective. This study develops an online booking system
for First Scan Clinic in Yemen. The system has developed using PHP and HTML
programing and prototype models to achieve the objectives. The system will facilitate
the patient to book an appointment easily by entering their information and choosing
the appropriate time for visiting the doctor. Therefore, this system also will help with
time scheduling to avoid crowds inside the clinic by receive a limited number of
patients per day. In addition to that, the website will provide an advices and guidance
about health awareness for patients.

Keywords: Frist Scan, Web-based Booking System, Yemen.

*Corresponding author: rozaida@uthm.edu.my

2022 UTHM Publisher. All rights reserved.
publisher.uthm.edu.my/periodicals/index.php/aitcs
Humaid et al., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

1. Introduction
An online booking system is at the simplest, software that allows a prospective patient to book via
the website for an operation or service. That ensures that everything is done electronically from the
moment a patient chooses they want to book to select a date, choose a time for the booking, drastically
minimizing the burden on your employees and avoiding the potential for double bookings. Both primary
health centers, as well as hospitals, use appointment scheduling services to control access to healthcare
providers. Appointment managers will have a significant effect on the organization's success; they
deserve due consideration, therefore. To maintain and optimize clinic income, ensuring that patients are
scheduled consistently and efficiently is important. While the biggest patient requirement remains
outstanding quality treatment, health care customers are also increasingly seeking support services such
as appointment management that suit their expectations.
First Scan Clinic nowadays are still use the manual booking system, which leads both the clinic
staff and clinic’s patients to face some problems, like difficulties on managing appointments for the
secretary office and wasting a long time for patients in waiting to book an appointment. Therefore, with
the highly impacts of online booking system, an interactive and effective approach should be applied to
build web-based system to provide and manage the booking process. The system will respond in real-
time and easy to be managed.
Hence, First Scan Clinic is the name of one of the famous clinics in Sana’a (Yemen), which it
specialized in diagnostic radiology. So many patients come to the clinic per day. then, the website will
help clinic to optimized clinic services for patients.
In First Scan Clinic due to the unpleasant circumstances in the past 10 years, many of the
professional doctors in First Scan Clinic have leaved their jobs searching for better places to live and
work in. while in the anther hand, the doctors who still in are overworking because of receiving patient
in numbers more than normal. That’s leads to difficulty on finding an appointment for patents. In
another hand, the reception office in First Scan Clinic are troubled in managing this huge number of
patients while they using the manual system for making appointment. The secretary needs to add the
date and time for every single patient, which make it difficult for both workers and patients.
Nowadays people tend to make their lives easier and convenient. Appointment booking website is
one of the popular issues that rose with the development of technology in Yemen. The aim of this project
is to develop an appointment booking website for First Scan Clinic.
To achieve the project, aim the system has to be designed in a simple and efficient way to make the
booking process less consuming for time and effort. The system has been developed using Prototyping
Model to make sure the system will be built and work as expected. The system will be tested to ensure
that all the functions on the system are worked correctly.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 1 describes the problem statement for this
project and the main objective for this application. Section 2 de-scribes the related work on profiling
and classification models such as The Medical Departures, The Red Clinic, Ultrasound Plus Clinic and
the explanation for proposed system. Section 3 presents the methodology Prototyping model for the
Appointment Booking System for First Scan Clinic and use the Software Development Life Cycle
(SDLC) to develop the proposed system. Section 4 shows the analysis and design for the system also
Section 5 will show the Context Diagram, Entity Relationship Diagram and the Database Specification
for the system. while section 6 discusses the Result and Discussion. Finally, Section 7 shows the Design
Interface for the application.

700
 Humaid & Ghazali., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

2. Related Work

2.1. The Medical Departures (URL: https://www.medicaldepartures.com/treatments)

Medical Departures and its sister site Dental Departures are the world's leading online destinations
for patients seeking high-quality, affordable medical and dental treatment anywhere in the world. With
more than 100,000 bookings and 35,000 verified patient reviews, Medical Departures’ network of 8600
providers in 40 countries has helped hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide save nearly a billion
dollars in care. Established in 2010, based in Bangkok and privately held, the company was founded by
Paul McTaggart, a former Expedia executive with a vision of becoming a leading force in connecting
patients in need of affordable healthcare to high-quality facilities anywhere in the world. Built into the
patient services platform are options for convenient 24/7 online booking and customer service,
financing and insurance, accommodations partnerships, our Best Price Guarantee, COVID-ready clinics
and more.

2.2. The Red Clinic (URL: https://theredclinic.com/)

The Red Clinic is built on the simple idea that good outpatient healthcare services should be
affordable and accessible to all, regardless of gender, race or nationality.
The Red Clinic, located in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Their focus and expertise are spread
across many procedures, with 20 procedures available to patients across 1 specialty. The Red Clinic is
a little limited in its offerings, and is more catered towards domestic patients, offering only English as
a spoken language by its staff. There are many specialists available at the Clinic, with 7 in total, and
they are not accredited by any recognized accreditations institutes.

2.3. Ultrasound Plus Clinic (URL: https://www.ultrasoundplus.co.uk/)

Ultrasound Plus was established as a private clinic to offer glowing expectant parents the intimate
experience of seeing their baby in stunning lifelike vision. They did this using the latest ultrasound
technology, and over the years we have gradually expanded to provide a wide and varied range of
different healthcare ultrasound scanning services.
Ultrasound Plus works to provide a friendly and welcoming ultrasound experience for expectant
parents or those who would like a healthcare check-up in our private clinic. There private healthcare
and pregnancy clinics can be found across the UK, including London, Essex, Hertfordshire and
Birmingham.

2.4. The proposed System

The proposed system called First Scan Clinic Online Booking System. Which can be used by PC
or Phones. It helps patients to book appointments without wasting time on waiting inside the clinic.
To book an appointment, patient can browse the website easily and find the preferable doctor.
Moreover, the system has booking module, chatting module and searching module.
The patients can choose the doctor and which type of diagnostic radiology they want. Also, it allows
patients to choose the day and time they prefer for the appointment. Patients can use the chat module to
ask information or location. The secretary (admin) of the clinic can set the appointments time and day
or create new one. The admin also, should be able to replay the cat massages. Lastly the Administrator
also allowed to access all the appointments and change in them, also, can manage the users.

701
Humaid et al., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

Table 1: Comparison between Existing Systems and Proposed System

Features/System Medical The Red Clinic Ultrasound Plus First Scan

Departures Clinic Clinic
Login Module Has login Dose not have Dose not have Has login
module for login module. login module. module for
all users. Doctor,
Assistant, Stuff
and Admin
Menu and Attractive Attractive Attractive user Attractive user Attractive user
user interface user interface interface interface
interface
Booking module The patient Has a sample Has an effective Patient can
can book an Booking Booking module book an
appointment module appointment in
easily efficient and
effective way.
Chat module Has a Has a modern Dose not have a Has a modern
modern chat chat module chat module. chat module
module between patent between patent
between and admin and admin
patent and
admin
Search module User can User can search User can search User can search
search for for the doctors. for the doctors. for the doctors.
the doctors.

3. Methodology/Framework
The methodology used in the Systems development life cycle (SDLC) to use a prototype model is
being used for the implementation of this system. Prototype technique is an approach that encourages
system users to specifically communicate with the system as a system test ground. The principal purpose
of the prototype model was selected for the purpose of developing a system so it can be repeatedly
phased to satisfy users' demands over time, while continually refining the components of the project.
The prototype model can be referenced in figure1 below.

Figure 1: Systems Development Life Cycle

702
 Humaid & Ghazali., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

The Figure 1 shows the four phases of Systems development life cycle that show (SDLC) development
methodology provides a structured way for developers to develop any software. Since it provides a
specific plan for each step of the development process, it helps prevent resources from being wasted
and reduces unexpected development costs.
Table 2 below indicates the phase used as a starting point for all projects and operations to be conducted
within the prototype model. The outcome of the system operation that the system creator does during
the process of system creation is seen by the performance.

Table 2: Software Development Activities and their Task

Phase Task Output

Planning Selection and determination of The problems that First Scan Clinic is
phases project titles. facing led to develop First Scan Online
System.
Identifies project objectives, problem Produce system objectives and system
statement and project scope. scope.

Presents the project plan for the Obtain authorization and approval of
Coordination Panels project. the requested title.

System implementation preparation Gantt chart generated

and preliminary assessments to
define current system problems,
benefits and weaknesses.
Analysis Analysis information obtained Gather information about the
phases clinic and study the current
system problems to be solved by
the new system.
Analyse Hardware and List the type of hardware and
Software requirements. software used to build the
system.
A literature review was System comparisons will be
undertaken in order to compare believed to improve and user-
the existing system. friendly the system to be built
and to set need goals.
The web-based information Using PHP programming, SQL
system programming language. and JavaScript.

Methodological selection Using prototype model

methodology.
Logical structure analysis such Provide flows chart, Data flow
as flow chart, data flows diagram (DFD) and Entity
diagram (DFD) and diagram of relationship diagram (ERD)
entity relationships (ERD)

Design Creation of a web-based System and database interface

phase information system, system will be created.
interface design and database
design.
703
Humaid et al., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

Implement Displays the systems and Full systems and document

ation phase process examination. processing system test
documentation can be produced.

4. System Analysis and Design

The aim of system design workflow is to show how the system will be understood in the implementation
phase. System design is the phase that illustrates the system prototype using some of the software tools.
Web base development requires a specific method to implement in such a way that would guide and
facilitate to us accomplishing project successfully. In this application a specific architecture is adopted.
It implements for First Scan Clinic.
The web-based structure is developed in term of many components that interface with each other such
web server, PHP language and SQL database. The web server is connected to the Internet network to
interchange the menu data. The database can be accessed by the user across the server. Moreover, the
database fetches the clinic information from the web server and allows the user to access it.
At the end of the system requirements collection, several relevant diagrams have been generated in
order for the preparation of system model design. The design phase activities include the design of
project architecture and graphical user inter-faces, develop relational databases, business logic and file
specifications.

4.1. System Analysis

The analysis is the process of studying and researching all the data gathered by the built framework.
The goal of this phase is to provide a thorough understanding of the system environment developers, to
provide an alternative system to make the system more effective through using a computer system, and
to define the needs of the system to be built through evaluating a system that explains the system in
detail by Data Flow Diagram (DFD), Entity Development Chart (ERD), Database design as well as user
interface design are also used in the device analysis and design process.

4.2. Context Diagram

The context diagram is a diagram that consists of process and describes the scope of a system, the
context diagram is the highest level compared to Data Flow Chart which represents the entire input to
the system or output from the system. Based on the figure show in Appendix 1 the context diagram
gives on overview of the entire web-based information system. Context Diagram shows the main
process which is First Scan Online Booking System and the five main entities in the process which are
User, Doctor, Assistance, Stuff and Admin as well shows the flow of data in general on the system.

4.3. Data flow diagram

The data flow diagram describes in detail the process and the entities involved in First Scan Online
Booking System. Based on the data flow diagram show in Appendix 2. there are five entities namely
as User, Doctor, Assistance, Stuff and Admin. The data flow diagram describes each entity and its
process in the web-based First Scan Online Booking System.

704
 Humaid & Ghazali., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

4.4. Entity Relationship Diagram

The diagram for the entity relationship describes the entities and attributes involved in the First scan
online booking system. The entities and attributes involved in the entity relationship diagram are shown
in detail in Appendix 3. There are five people involved with this system, such as User, Doctor,
Assistance, stuff and Web Administrator, each of which is connected to each other.

5. Implementation and Testing

This section discusses the implementation of the system development phase according to the system
specification and design that have been discussed and specified in section 4. While the testing phase
can be divided into two, namely alpha testing by system developer and alpha testing by system users.
The testing phase is an important phase to ensure system users are able to evaluate system flow and
system functionality according to the system requirements set by user.
The design implementation process has been developed for First Scan Online Booking system based
on the design that was identified early on this project. Software such as Bracket, Xampp, and Google
Chrome are used to display system interface. The programing language used to develop the system are
PHP and HTML while MySQL is used as a database.
The booking module acts as the main module for this system as users can make an appointment
with the chosen doctor by entering the required information into the system. All appointment
information and availability dates will be displayed in calendar provided in the system. Whenever a
user book an appointment, the information entered will be stored and recorded in the database. Figure
2 Shows partial of the code section of bookings an appointment module.

Figure 2: Partial Coding for Bookings an Appointment

System testing is one of the processes that need to be done once the system development is
complete. Testing of this system is intended to test the functionality and identify any errors that may
occur in the system operation. There are several tests done namely module testing and system testing.
Module testing refers to the process of testing that has been performed on the modules that have been
developed in this system.

705
 Humaid et al., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

The function of the test is to perform the inspection of the system function. This includes tests
for User interfaces, Booking, Login Interface, Administration Interface, Doctor Interfaces, Assistant
Interfaces, staff Interfaces, and Chatting module. The result is a display in the table and pie chart
showing the result status. The table 3 shows the test result for login page.

Table 3: Test Result for Login Page

No Test Case Description Expected Result Result 100(%)

1. Test_101 The workers must login Workers can explore the successful 100%
before they enter to the system and manage the
system. appointments.
2. Test_102 The system will display The system can display successful 100%
the login page for the workers login in this
workers. page.
3 Test_103 The worker is required to The worker can choose successful 100%
choose a type of users. the right type of user.
4. Test_104 The worker is required to The worker can enter a successful 100%
enter a valid username. valid username and the
login process is
successful.
5. Test_105 The worker is required to The worker can enter a successful 100%
enter a valid password. valid password and the
login process is
successful.

This table below shows the booking process test in the system. In this process the user can
choose the preferable doctor. Then can book an appointment provided by the doctor depending on the
available time.
Table 4: Test Result for Booking Page

No Test Case Description Expected Result Result 100(%)

1. Test_201 The user can choose the To ensure that user can successful 100%
preferable doctor. choose the preferable
doctor and choose the
suitable time.
2. Test_202 The user can book an To ensure that user can successful 100%
appointment. book an appointment
by entering the
requested information.

Overall, all the modules and functions in this system succeeded as expected. Table 5 shows
the overall results for all functions.

706
 Humaid & Ghazali., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

Table 5: Overall Results for all Function

No Module Testing Result (%)

1. User Interface successful 100%
2. Booking Interface successful 100%
3. Login Interface successful 100%
4. Admin Interface successful 100%
5. Doctor interface successful 100%
6. Assistance Interface successful 100%
7. Stuff Interface successful 100%
8. Chatting Module successful 100%

6. Results and Discussion

In this section also discuss the user interface in proposed system. Users are allowed to explore the
system, find the appropriate doctor, explore and reed the daily blogs, and contact with the recaption
using email or WhatsApp.

6.1. User Interface

First Scan Online Booking System has developed to facilitate many things for patients. Users can
enter to the website easily to see clinic information, types of services that provided on clinic, doctors
information, medical blogs which updated daily, and contact us which show the ways how user may
contact clinic’s reception. Figure 3 Shows the user interface page.

Figure 3: User Interface Page

707
Humaid et al., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

6.2. Booking Module

This module acts as the main module for this system as users can make an appointment with the
chosen doctor by entering the required information into the system. All appointment information and
availability dates will be displayed in calendar provided in the system. Figure 7 Is the interface to the
user to book an appointment. Whenever a user book an appointment, the information entered will be
stored and recorded in the database. Figure 4 Shows the booking page.

Figure 4: Booking Page

6.3. Doctor Interface

This page gives Doctors some authority of the system. Doctors are able to create an appointment,
delete an appointment, manage the schedule of the appointments, edit the profile image, and adding
any information or experiences. Figure 5 shows the doctor’s appointment page.

Figure 5: Doctor’s Appointment Page

708
 Humaid & Ghazali., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

6.4. Assistance and Stuff Interfaces

System gives access for Assistance and Stuff to create, done or trash appointments by logging into
their own accounts. The figure 6 shows the interface for Assistance, while figure 7 shows the
interface for Stuff.

Figure 6: Interface for Assistance

Figure 7: Interface for Stuff

709
Humaid et al., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

6.5. Administrator Interface

For the Administrator of First Scan Clinic Online Booking system is allowed to explore and
manage the System, add or change the sectors of the clinic, add or change the locations of the clinic.
Also have the bower to (add, banned or change) doctors or the workers of the clinic. Furthermore, the
Admin can create and view appointments of the clinic and reply to user massages. The figure 8. shows
the interface for the Administrator.

Figure 8: Interface for Administrator

7. Conclusion
The first Scan Clinic Booking System is a system developed specifically for booking appointments
at First Scan clinic. The purpose of the system was addressing the problems happening with
management of the clinic will booking appointments. The users who are allowed to use the system are
patient, doctors, assistant, and staff. As a result, system has been tested all modules and all of them
worked well. This system successfully solved all the problems encountered compare to the existing
manual system.

710
 Humaid & Ghazali., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

APPENDIX

Appendix 1: Context Diagram

Appendix 2: Data Flow Diagram

711
Humaid et al., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

Appendix 3: ERP

Appendix 4: Blog Page on User Interface

712
 Humaid & Ghazali., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

Appendix 5: Contact Us Page on User Interface

Appendix 6: Manage Appointments page om Doctor Interface

713
Humaid et al., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

Appendix 7: Login for Doctor and Workers

Appendix 8: Admin Login

714
 Humaid & Ghazali., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

References
[1] Fernandes C, Daya M, Barry S, Palmer N (1994). Emergency department Patients
who leave without seeing a Physician: The Toronto Hospital experience. Ann. Emer.
Med., 24: 1092-1096.
[2] 14. Klassen, K. J., T. R. Rohleder. 2004. Outpatient appointment scheduling with
urgent clients in a dynamic, multi-period environment. Internat. J. Service Indust.
Management 15(2) 167–186.
[3] Alex Chaffee (2000-08-17). "What is a web application (or "webapp")?". Retrieved
2008-07-27.
[4] James Duncan Davidson, Danny Coward (1999-12-17). Java Servlet Specification
("Specification") Version: 2.2 Final Release. Sun Microsystems. pp. 43–46. Retrieved
2008-07-27.
[5] AP Idowu, OO Adeosun… - International Journal of 2014.
[6] Lv, Z., Jun, Y., Huang, J., 2018. How do sellers use live chat to influence consumer
purchase decision in China. Electron. Commer. Res. Appl. 28, 102–113.
[7] Mero, J., 2018. The effects of two-way communication and chat service usage on
consumer attitudes in the e-commerce retailing sector. Electron. Mark. 28 (2), 205–
217.
[8] Go, E., Shyam Sundar, S., 2019. Humanizing Chatbots: the effects of visual, identity
and conversational cues on humanness perceptions. Comput. Hum. Behav.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.01.020
[9] Chattaraman, V., Kwon, W.S., Gilbert, J.E., Ross, K., 2019. Should AI-based,
conversational digital assistants employ social or task-oriented interaction style? A
taskcompetency and reciprocity perspective for older adults. Comput. Hum. Behav.
90, 315–330.
[10] W.D. Lia, *, S.K. Ongb,1, A.Y.C. Neeb, “Computer-Aided Design,” A Web-based
process planning optimization system for distributed design, vol. 37, pp. 921-930,
Sept.2004.Available.
[11] The University of Texas, Dallas. Client-Server Architecture. Retrieved October 2010,
from http://www.utdallas.edu/~chung/SA/2client.pdf .
[12] Paul Stanley Software (2011). Advantage of Web Applications. Retrieved October
2010, from http://www.pssuk.com/AdvantagesWebApplications.htm .
[13] Hyde Technology, School. Advantages and Disadvantages of using a network
compared to stand alone computer, s. Retrieved October 2010, from
http://www.ictgnvq.org.uk/unit10/advantages_and_disadvantages.htm .
[14] Christopher Heng (2010).PHP Vs Perl. Retrieved October 2010, from
http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/phpvscgi.shtml .

715
Humaid et al., Applied Information Technology and Computer Science Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022) p. 699-716

[15] gbdirect.com.Active Web Sites and Comparison of Scripting Languages. Retrieved

October 2010, from
http://training.gbdirect.co.uk/courses/php/comparison_php_versus_perl_vs_asp_jsp_v
s_vbscript_web_scripting.html
[16] Answer Corporation (2011).What are the advantages and disadvantages of HTML
Retrieved October 2010,from
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_advantages_and_disadvantages_of_using_
HTML
[17] Hiroshi (2007-2011). Advantages and Disadvantages of XML. Retrieved October
2010,from http://www.techmynd.com/advantages-disadvantages-of-xml/
[18] https://www.medicaldepartures.com/treatments
[19] https://theredclinic.com/
[20] https://www.ultrasoundplus.co.uk/
[21] (Pane, 2020)
https://doi.org/10.37385/jaets.v2i1.166
https://journal.yrpipku.com/index.php/jaets/article/view/166
[22] (Riehle, 2019)
https://doi.org/10.30844/aistes.v4i1.10

716