Planning Object

Planning objects are objects in SAP Patient Management for which you can store capacities in the form of time slots. Planning objects are also referred to as resources. In the Visit Scheduling function, you can schedule provisional appointments and outpatient visits with regard to the time slots stored for each planning object.

You can define the following objects as planning objects:

Organizational units (OUs)
Building units on a lower level than the OU in the organizational hierarchy
Persons defined in SAP Patient Management as business partners holding the Physician or Employee function.

Note Note

You can define planning objects for all OUs, irrespective of their organizational unit category. Nonetheless, only planning objects to which OUs of the organizational unit category Outpatient clinic are assigned are taken into account in Outpatient Clinic Management. The planning objects used within Outpatient Clinic Management must therefore be based on OUs of the organizational unit category Outpatient clinic.

End of the note.

You maintain planning objects within the hospital structure basic data. On the initial screen, you specify the treatment OU for which the planning object should be valid. Should the treatment OU itself be defined as the planning object, you need make no further specifications. If a lower-level building unit or a person is defined as a planning object, enter either the identification key of the building unit or the person in the Building Unit or Person fields respectively.

Planning Objects for Several OUs

Whenever you define building units or persons as planning objects, you always create the planning object with reference to an organizational unit of the organizational unit category Outpatient clinic.

You can also assign planning objects of the category Person to more than one OU.

Example Example

You can assign a physician as a planning object to several treatment OUs, for example.

In addition, the multiple assignment of building units (rooms) to OUs is possible.

End of the example.

You maintain the time slots for a planning object using the time slot overview. This overview displays all the week and day programs of planning object for a calendar year.

Attributes

Activation

If you want to use the planning object in Visit Scheduling, select Plann. Object Active.

Sequence

The system displays the daily schedules of up to three planning objects of an outpatient clinic simultaneously in Visit Scheduling. If more than three planning objects exist, you can scroll through the daily schedules of the planning objects. You can define the sequence in which the daily schedules of the planning objects are to be displayed in visit scheduling by entering a number in the Seq.No. Sched. field. This number determines the position of the daily schedule within the sequence.

Time Frame for Open Time Slot Search

You can specify the period that the system should use for finding open time slots in the visit overview or Visit Scheduling. For this purpose, enter the required number of days in the Search Intrvl field.

Validity

If you wish to limit the validity of the time slot of a planning object, you can specify the appropriate number of days in the Limited TSA field. The planning object is then available on a rolling basis for the number of days you specified here.

Example Example

Limited TSA: 100 100

The specified time slot is available for Visit Scheduling for the next 100 days beginning with today's (the system) date.

As of the 101st day, the time slot is no longer available for the planning object in Visit Scheduling. Displaying and searching for time slots is not possible from this date.

End of the example.

Treatment Room or Attending Physician (Person)

Planning objects of the category Person

You can assign a treatment room to a planning object of the category Person using the Room field. When you create an appointment for this planning object with Visit Scheduling, the system uses this treatment room by default in the appointment data.

Note Note

In addition, you can stipulate a treatment room when defining the available time slots for the day program of the planning object. This lets you override any room assignment you might have made in the master data of the planning object.

End of the note.

Planning objects of the category Room

For a planning object of the type Room, you can stipulate an attending physician (person) in the Att. Phy. field.

Note Note

In addition, you can stipulate an attending physician (person) when defining the available time slots for the day program of the planning object. This lets you override any person assignment you might have made in the master data of the planning object.

End of the note.

If a person is defined for a planning object the category Room, the system uses this person as the attending person when you create an appointment.

Public Holidays

If you select the Time Slot Avail. on Public Hols option, the time slots of the planning object are also taken into account on public holidays in the Visit Scheduling function.

Note Note

The relevant public holidays must be entered in the public holiday calendar that is valid for the institution in Customizing. For more information, see the documentation for the system parameter KALENDER, which you maintain in the Customizing activity Maintain Institution-Specific, Time-Independent Parameters.

End of the note.

Overbooking Option

If you select the Restricted Overbooking indicator, you can overbook an appointment (time slot) in the visit scheduling function, if the number of overbookings possible is explicitly defined for this time slot in the day program of the planning object, and if you have authorization for overbooking. If you do not select this option, an appointment (time slot) can be overbooked without restriction for the planning object in the Visit Scheduling function. In this case, the system does not take into account overbooking restrictions that may have been defined in the day program nor missing overbooking authorizations.