Whenever an appointment is cancelled, Lisa searches for similar appointments in the near future. Lisa calls those patients to check whether they can come in earlier. Lisa may have to make several calls before she can find the right patient. It is possible that the appointment goes unfilled. These are billable hours for the physician, which have been wasted not only on the part of Lisa's time, but also with the vacant appointment.

Whenever an appointment is created for a patient, Lisa adds the same appointment to AnythingEarlier, which emails the patient with this appointment information. The patient logs into the AnythingEarlier Dashboard and enters alternative time slots for his availability or can choose to integrate his calendar, which is added to the availability list. AnythingEarlier then searches through the patient availability list and finds the best match. The patient is contacted via email, text, or phone call. If the patient confirms the appointment, the slot is filled. If patient does not accept the new appointment date by a set time, the next patient on the list is contacted. Thus, the appointment slots are automatically filled, without Lisa searching for more patients.

A patient is emailed when his appointment is added to AnythingEarlier. If this is the first time login, AnythingEarlier configures the system for the patient, capturing communication preferences (email, text, voice mail) and preferred appointment times. The patient may have AnythingEarlier appointments with different providers, all of which will be visible on his AnythingEarlier dashboard, which can be integrated with user's calendar and accessible via PC, Mac, tablet or smart phone.

The patient's appointment with Dr. Matthews is three months from now, although the patient would like to see Dr. Matthews earlier. The patient can provide up to five alternate time slots to indicate his earlier availability or simply integrate his calendar. The alternate time slots have to be at least as long as the appointment length, but may be longer. For example, if the appointment time is 30 minutes, the patient may provide a two-hour window. Similarly, the patient may indicate availability for his other AnythingEarlier appointments.

When an appointment becomes available, AnythingEarlier searches for appropriate patients. AnythingEarlier looks up patient preferences and contacts one patient at a time via text, voice call or email. Each method requires the patient to respond.

For example, AnythingEarlier contacts a patient with an available appointment on Monday at 9:00 am, a time which the patient has indicated he is available. AnythingEarlier via text asks the patient to respond "Yes" if appointment is accepted, "No", if appointment is not accepted. Similarly, voice call asks patient to press "1" to accept or press "2" to reject the appointment. In email, a link is provided to the user allowing him to access his portal and accept or reject the appointment and schedule another. The response is recorded by AnythingEarlier.

Depending on how far out the new appointment is, the required response from the patient may vary from 5 minutes to 24 hours. If the patient does not respond within this time period, the next patient in the queue will be contacted. If the patient accepts the appointment, Lisa is notified about the acceptance, and the appointment slot is filled. If patient rejects this appointment, next patient in the queue is contacted. If all patients reject the appointment, Lisa is notified.

Having Lisa enter appointments in two systems is not efficient. AnythingEarlier integrates with the existing scheduling system. Integration will require synchronizing appointments through standard healthcare methods. Every appointment Lisa adds to Acme practice management automatically is updated in AnythingEarlier, making the adoption process easier.

AnythingEarlier will track all time slots it filled and regularly provide reports. Lisa will be able to see how AnythingEarlier filled in the time slots. Other tracked features include:

• number of open appointment slots posted each day
• number of appointment slots filled by AnythingEarlier
• number of patients waiting for an earlier appointment time
• current day's AnythingEarlier patients and the status of whether they are confirmed, checked-in, cancelled, or no-show

AnythingEarlier will take into account the following variables when filling appointment slots for patients:

• Doctor specialty
• Availability of required resources. Some appointments may need a special room or equipment; during the available time slot, that equipment should be available
• Location
• Visit/appointment type
• Assigned doctor
• Preference of visit type
• Cluster similar visit types together (or not depending on provider preference)
• Reimbursement type preference
• Past patient history with appointments (history of no-shows/cancelled appointments gets lower priority).

Administrators will:

• Setup new practices
• Add new users or update existing users
• Make configuration changes on the global system level and at each practice level
• Manage reports (create/update/deploy).