Online Scheduling System Dissertation: FMC Hospital Case Study

This dissertation focuses on the development and implementation of a web-based online scheduling system for surgery rooms at Faruk Medical City (FMC) Hospital. The study addresses the inefficiencies of the traditional manual scheduling process, which relies on paper-based forms and manual coordination. The primary aim is to create an IT solution that streamlines surgery room bookings, equipment management, and communication between surgeons, medical assistants, and patients. The dissertation outlines the problem statement, project objectives, methodologies, and expected outcomes, including an analysis of the current manual system, research on applicable technologies, and testing of the developed system. The research includes surveys and interviews to gather requirements and evaluate the system's effectiveness, usability, and impact on operational efficiency. The dissertation also explores the academic and business applications of the developed system and offers recommendations for future research and development, aiming to improve healthcare service delivery through technological advancements. The IT solution provides a detailed analysis and comparison of the traditional method and the online scheduling system, including the advantages and disadvantages of each.

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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the various parties that ensured the success of the following
dissertation. I would especially like to thank the management of FMC medical center for the
partnership and allowing and trusting me to upgrade their scheduling system to state of art
modern scheduling system. Additionally, I would wish to thank all my colleagues who worked
closely with me to ensure the success of this dissertation. The accomplishment of these
achievement would not have been possible without your constant support.
Table of Contents
LIST OF FIGURES.........................................................................................................................5
LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 1...................................................................................................................................5
1.1 Chapter introduction.............................................................................................................5
1.2 Problem statement................................................................................................................5
1.3 Aims and objectives of the project.......................................................................................7
1.4 Method of approach...................................................................................................................8
1.5 Outcome.....................................................................................................................................7
1.6 Summary....................................................................................................................................9
CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND LITERATURE REVIEW............10
2.1 Chapter introduction................................................................................................................10
2.2 Background research...............................................................................................................10
2.3 literature review.......................................................................................................................12

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2.4 Theory......................................................................................................................................15
2.5 Summary..................................................................................................................................18
CHAPTER 3. ANALYSIS AND DESIGN.................................................................................18
3.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................................18
3.2 Project specifications...............................................................................................................19
3.3 Research methods....................................................................................................................22
3.4 Design considerations..............................................................................................................24
3.5 Chapter summary.....................................................................................................................25
CHAPTER 4: IMPLEMENTATION........................................................................................26
4.1 Chapter introduction................................................................................................................26
4.2 Details of implementation........................................................................................................26
4.2.1 Software implementations....................................................................................................27
4.2.2 Modifications........................................................................................................................28
4.3 The IT artefact.........................................................................................................................29
4.3.1 Components of the IT artefact..............................................................................................29
4.4 Chapter summary.....................................................................................................................31
CHAPTER 5: RESULTS AND EVALUATION......................................................................31
5.1 Chapter introduction................................................................................................................31
5.2 Evaluation of the artefact.........................................................................................................31
5.2.1 Recap of the objectives of the research................................................................................31

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5.2.2 Results and evaluation..........................................................................................................33
5.2.3 Web-based application usability test survey.........................................................................34
5.2.4 Suitability of font size and icon used....................................................................................35
5.2.4 Obtained results versus the aims...........................................................................................35
5.3 Chapter summary.....................................................................................................................36
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION...................................................................................................37
6.1 Chapter introduction................................................................................................................37
6.2 Lesson learned.........................................................................................................................37
6.3 Strengths and weaknesses of the project.................................................................................38
6.4 Academic applications and limitations....................................................................................39
6.5 Business applications and limitations......................................................................................39
6.6 Recommendations/prospects for future research/work...........................................................40
6.7 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................40
REFERENCES CITED...............................................................................................................40
LIST OF FIGURES.

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Figure 1. Levels of hardness of navigating the online system.......................................................34
Figure 2. Suitability of font size and icon used.............................................................................35
Figure 3.Evaluation of the results compared to the aims of the project........................................36
LIST OF TABLES.
CHAPTER 1.
1.1 Chapter introduction.
Globally, healthcare is a major contributor to the most important aspects of the world
economy (Wilson, Tucci, Merson, and O'Donoghue, 2017). The more the healthy a notion is, the
more the productivity of the nation. Therefore, a lot of effort is being put in place to improve
global healthcare. This chapter contains a detailed report on how to improve the healthcare
facilities in Faruk Medical City (FMC) in Sulaymaniyah city in Northern Iraq. The report
highlights how to improve the scheduling of Surgeons from traditional methods to more
productive digital methods.
1.2 Problem statement.
Faruk Medical City is one of the largest hospitals in Northern Iraq. The hospital has a
total of 190 medical doctors, 37 departments, 11 surgery rooms and 210 beds. It offers a lot of
services to the residents of Sulaymaniyah and the whole region of Northern Iraq at large. The
various services include daycare procedures, intensive care facilities, pharmacy, hospital hotel
services, checkup centers, sleep disorders treatment as well as physical therapy. The center also
offers daily surgery services though it has limited personnel, equipment and surgery facilities.
FMC is a well-structured medical center that has integrated modern technology in most
of its major services. This has enabled it to run smoothly, provides better medical care in the

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region as well as keep up with rising competition from other hospitals in the country and
globally. However, their well-structured computerized network lacks a powerful scheduling
system to enable the schedule for most of its services including surgery services. (Gupta. and
Maravelias, 2016).
Traditionally, surgeons in Faruk Medical City have been using a surgery room booking
form. The form requires the doctors to fill in various details about the surgery they want to
conduct. The doctors will provide the patient details, type of surgery needed, the equipment to be
used and the day and time of the surgery. The form is then considered a request form that is later
considered, and feedback is provided later on. The whole process is conducted manually using
papers, Word documents, and Excel sheets. The whole process is tiresome and time-consuming.
The medical assistant has to look at the availability of the surgery room on the requested date
and make sure that the equipment required for a particular surgery is not being used in other
surgery rooms at the specified time. After the consideration process and approval of the request,
the medical assistant will then notify both the surgeon and the patient. Before the day of surgery,
the doctor and the surgeon will be reminded about the surgery.
The above challenges raised the need to have an online booking schedule for surgeons
that will save on time, improve the quality of services provided and ensure sharing and improved
usage of surgery equipment.
1.3 Aims and objectives of the project.
This dissertation aims to develop an IT solution for surgery room management through
online booking platforms. The project aims at developing a web-based application for an online
scheduling system for surgery rooms and management of surgery facilities and equipment. The

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system should be accessed by all the surgeons in Faruk Medical City, enable the surgeons to
request a date, time, rooms and equipment needed for a successful surgery. Upon approval of the
request, the system should be able to send a notification message to both the surgeon in charge
and the affected patient. In addition to that, the system should also be enabled to send a reminder
notification to both parties before the scheduled date (Doan, Ngo, Kawazoe and Collier, 2019).
The IT solution should be able to enhance the performance of the operating theater by
enabling and improving proper patient planning using a fast scheduling system. The system
should also be able to factor in various variables such as the urgency of each surgery and
consider the cases that require fast actions to save human life (French-O’Carroll, McDonagh, and
Flood, 2017).
Other important objectives of the study are,
 Compare the traditional manual method of surgery room scheduling with
the digital online scheduling systems.
 Analyze the development of the surgery room online scheduling system.
 Appraise the effectiveness of the IT solution.
 Conduct a final analysis of the main advantages of the online scheduling
system and the disadvantages that are associated with the system.
The IT solution provided will not only be used by Faruk Medical City but also by other
medical centers in the region and across the world, other service providers and agencies that can
employ a similar online scheduling system.

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1.4 Method of approach.
The success of the IT solution is highly dependent on the method of approach that will be
employed during the entire process of development. This dissertation has defined the best
method of approach for the development of the surgery online scheduling system.
Acute analysis of the current traditional manual method that is used by FMC for surgery
rooms booking. In the analysis of the current system, the advantages, disadvantages,
functionality, reliability and the convenience of the system should be given a lot of
consideration.
Conducting intensive research on the internet and other materials about the current, latest
and most applicable techniques that are used in the development of the web-based application
that will be used by FMC. This will also include testing the various tools that are used for the
development of online scheduling systems.
Conduct various tests on the developed system before releasing it to be used by the
hospital. The tests will include the functionality and effectiveness of the system.
Another very important step that will be considered in the development of the online
system is running SQL queries to examine data entry of the system as well as the accuracy of the
entire system (Wang, Cheung, and Bodik, 2017).
Conducting both external and internal penetration tests on the system to make it secure
from cybercriminals from any environment (Satria, Alanda, Erianda, and Prayama, 2018).
Conducting interviews and surveys on surgeons and medical assistants in FMC. To
obtain the best results from interviews and surveys conducted before and after the development
of the system, the Likert scale should be used to conduct interviews on surgeons and medical

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assistants who are currently working on the traditional methods and those and will continue
working on the online scheduling system.
1.5 Outcome.
The outcome that is recorded in this dissertation can be used as a measure of the success
of the entire process of developing the online scheduling system for FCM.
The expected outcome will consist of an investigation of the current manual scheduling
framework. The brief investigation is expected to cover the uncertainty of the current framework,
the advantages, disadvantages, functionality, reliability and time history of how long the system
has been used in FMC.
Another useful result that is expected from this study is to realize the most applicable
methods that will boost the development of an online framework. Besides, it is expected that the
dissertation will provide a reasonable and executable planning framework for the development of
an online booking procedure that is to be employed in FMC. The dissertation should also provide
a helpful strategy that will ensure proper management of the developed online scheduling
system.
The research exercise should also provide a detailed result on the interviews and the
surveys that were conducted during the process of developing the online booking platform as
well as upon completion and deployment of the system. The results from these surveys and
interviews will be used as the foundation of developing the online platform. The results that are
obtained from interviews conducted after deployment of the system will be used to improve and
modify the system accordingly to improve its service delivery and satisfaction to the hospital,
surgeons, medical assistants and the patients.

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The research is also expected to conduct a recommendation exercise that will mobilize
the importance and major advantages of the online scheduling platform. The development team
should encourage the FGM management to embrace the online scheduling system for not only
surgery room booking but as well as other platforms of the hospital that such a similar online
system can be employed to improve the services that the hospital provides.
The result of all the tests that were administered to the system should be well analyzed
and used to develop a stronger, secure, reliable and fully functional online scheduling system.
The outcome of this research is to provide a reliable IT solution to overcome the various
challenges that face the current manual surgery room scheduling process. In the long run, the IT
solution is supposed to record a better utilization of surgery equipment, safe on time and energy
that was wasted while using the traditional manual method as well as improve service delivery
during the entire process. This is expected to record a positive outcome in the overall financial
record of the hospital.
1.6 Summary.
Modern technology is taking over most aspects of daily activities. To keep up with the
dynamic sophisticated technology and keep up with the market competition, hospitals have to
embrace technologies in various platforms. This chapter covered in detail the development of a
web-based online surgery room booking for FMC. The chapter has also introduced the problem
statement that is expected to be covered by the online scheduling system. The results of this
chapter can also be used for further studies concerning the same subject.
The chapter has also covered the key objectives and aims of the research, the best
applicable methods of approach as well as the ultimate and long-run outcomes of the exercise.

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The results of this chapter will be used in chapter 2. The chapter is going to cover the
literature review of the research, background on the research and the theoretical part of the
research.
CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND LITERATURE REVIEW.
2.1 Chapter introduction.
Online scheduling system for surgery room in FMC is by no doubt one of the best
methods to ensure optimum utilization of surgery facilities and equipment in the hospital
(Spangenberg, Wilke, Augenstein and Franczyk, 2018). In this chapter, we are going to conduct
a background research of the online scheduling system, review the literature based on other
similar projects that have researched on the topic of study. This chapter will also introduce the
general theoretical approach of the research topic as well as discuss the various theories that
supports the online platform. By the end of this chapter, all the findings will be justified
(Spangenberg, Wilke, Augenstein and Franczyk, 2018).
2.2 Background research.
In previous studies that have broadly covered online scheduling systems, scheduling has
been described as a comprehensive term comprising of a variety of processes. The most
prominent processes in scheduling are, allocation of resources, planning, timetabling and
booking appointments. Among these major processes, timetabling is the most particular to
scheduling. The process entails following a certain criterion to place people and objects into set
of times that have been predefined by various constraints. The most common example of
timetabling is the school timetable where all the subjects have been given a set of time and

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particular days that it should be taught (Spry, Kennedy, Singh, Galvão, Taaffe, Chee, Davis,
Brien, and Newton, 2018).
Scheduling is closely related to timetabling since it will involve allocation of time for
various people and objects. In Faruk Medical City, we want to schedule surgery rooms for
operations I a particular period of time. Currently, the medical center has appreciated the concept
of scheduling by using a manual method of scheduling that is tedious and does not ensure
maximum utilization of surgeons as well as equipment and surgery rooms. Therefore, FMC want
to appreciate technology by employing an online scheduling platform. But in order to apply the
online method, a clear understanding of the entire scheduling system should be well
comprehended.
The aspect of scheduling has attracted a lot of concern from many researchers. One of the
most popular projects on scheduling was done by Henry Laurence Gantt who introduced the
Gantt Chart in 1917. Other researchers later went on with the research. Brucker in 2001
mentioned that a schedule in every job allocates time intervals to one machine or many machines
(Ong, Wang. and Zainon, 2016). From all the projects that have been conducted earlier, it can be
summarized that scheduling involves committing one or more limited resources towards a certain
objective, by distributing the tasks over time intervals that assure maximum efficiency in
achieving the set objective.
The need for scheduling arises due to,
1. Time-dependency. This is where all the activities depend on the
completion of one activity to commerce.
2. When there is more than one task to be completed.