Airlines do it; bookstores like Amazon do it; your hairdresser does it: Let the customer make their own bookings. But with the exception of the UK (where Choose and Book offers the possibility for patients to book their own hospital appointment), hospitals have been very late in allowing  their patients to make appointments themselves. The Regional Hospital of Horsens, in Midtjylland Denmark, however, has been the first in Denmark to open up its booking module …

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In order to put the patient in focus we need to look openly at the opportunities offered by technology. Why is it that a technology such as RFID which is considered mature by almost everyone is not used for materials, staff and patient tracking; why are just-in-time principles very seldom used when dealing with equipment; why are hospital departments in 2011 using paper-based planning systems instead of modern scheduling applications; why are nurses, doctors and administrators struggling with spreadsheets instead of being supported by business intelligence?

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