Channelling Overview - hmislk/hmis GitHub Wiki

Channelling Overview

Channelling is the system used to book patients for consultant appointments at a specific date and time. It is the primary workflow for managing scheduled outpatient consultations with specialists and visiting doctors.

What Is Channelling?

In HMIS, channelling refers to the complete process of:

Scheduling a consultant session (the doctor's available time slots or token numbers)
Booking a patient into that session
Managing the patient through the queue on the day of the appointment
Collecting payment and issuing a bill

Channelling is distinct from OPD walk-in consultations. In channelling, a patient is booked in advance into a specific session instance (a scheduled occurrence of a doctor's clinic), whereas OPD walk-in patients receive a token on the spot without a prior booking.

Key Concepts

Consultant

A specialist or visiting doctor who holds channelling sessions. Each consultant belongs to one or more specialities (e.g., Cardiology, Paediatrics, Neurology).

Speciality

A clinical discipline used to group and filter consultants (e.g., Cardiology, General Surgery, ENT). When booking, staff first select a speciality to narrow down the consultant list.

Session

A recurring schedule that defines when a consultant holds their clinic — for example, "Dr. Perera, Cardiology, every Tuesday 09:00–12:00, maximum 30 patients." Sessions carry fee information and numbering rules.

Sessions come in two types:

Slot-based (time-based): Each patient is given a specific appointment time within the session window.
Token/unlimited: Patients are given a serial token number and seen in order — no fixed time per patient.

See Channel Session Type: Slot-Based and Channel Session Type: Token / Unlimited for details.

Session Instance

A single occurrence of a session on a specific calendar date. For example, the Tuesday session above generates a session instance for each Tuesday it runs. The session instance holds the actual bookings for that day, its status (Scheduled, Ongoing, Completed, Cancelled), and real-time counts.

Booking

A patient's reservation within a session instance. Each booking produces a channel bill and assigns the patient a serial number or time slot.

Booking Lifecycle

Session Instance Created
        ↓
Patient Booked → Bill Issued → Payment Collected
        ↓
Day of Appointment:
  Doctor Arrives (session marked Arrived)
        ↓
  Session Started
        ↓
  Patients Called One by One (Queue)
        ↓
  Session Completed

At any point before the session starts, a booking can be:

Rescheduled — moved to a different session instance
Cancelled — removed with a cancellation record
Refunded — payment returned to the patient
Transferred — bill moved to a different session

Navigation Path

Channelling is accessed from the main menu:

Menu → Channelling

The Channelling menu contains:

Menu Item	Purpose
Channel Booking View	Main live booking screen
Channel Booking — By Dates	Browse and book across a date range
Channel Booking — By Month	Monthly calendar view
Channel Schedule	Today's sessions for the logged-in doctor
Channel Queue	Live patient queue for a session
Channel Display	Waiting room display board
Past Bookings	Search historical bookings
Channel Bill Search	Find channel bills by patient or date
Doctor Leave	Mark a consultant as unavailable
Channel Scheduling	Admin hub for managing sessions and schedules
Payment	Pay doctors and agents
Cashier Transaction	Record income and expenses
Credit/Debit Note	Raise financial adjustments
Reports	All channelling reports
Channel Analytics	High-level dashboards
Management	Agencies, consultants, specialities
Patient Portal	Patient self-service
Doctor Card	Consultant profile and card

Required Privilege

Access to the Channelling menu requires the Channelling privilege. Individual menu items have their own sub-privileges (e.g., ChannellingChannelBooking, ChannellingPastBooking, ChannelSessionManagement).

Contact your system administrator if any menu items are not visible.