The overall workflow for the booking process is as follows:
- Patient triage/assessment
- Service discovery
- Endpoint discovery
- Slot discovery
- Attempt booking
- Confirm booking
The bold items in the list above indicate where in the process the DoS is involved. As discussed elsewhere, the actual endpoint address will be stored in a separate directory (SDS). The DoS will provide a pointer (ASID) to the correct directory entry.
Each service directory entry will correspond to the specific schedule resource on the target provider system. Therefore it can be assumed that a system could have multiple entries on the directory (e.g. DoS).
As a provider system, it is therefore expected that there will be a mechanism in the system to link diaries/schedules to a service directory ID. This will then be the “grouping factor” on the slots that are returned by a “get slots” request from a consuming system.
Important DoS workflow considerations
- How should a booking only service be profiled on the DoS?
There is a new way to technically prohibit a referral via the DoS if no bookings are available. If this is not available the recommendation is to clearly indicate that referrals are not accepted both in the referral instructions and also in the title of the service
- What if a service is profiled for both triage outcomes that are appropriate for a booking and other outcomes that are not appropriate?
The recommendation is that where two different clinical profiles are required (e.g. booking and not booking triage outcomes), two DoS services are used. Only one would have a booking endpoint configured.
- How do you know what type of booking interaction is required by the provider system? Is it stored on the DoS?
When a call to SDS is made, the response will have an interaction id. This will be different depending on whether it is GP Connect or CareConnect that is to be used for that endpoint.
- If a provider system is compliant with GP Connect and Care Connect, could you get two endpoints on SDS for the same DoS service?
The assurance process will ensure that this should never happen. If two booking endpoints are returned by the call to SDS then this is a fault mode and the booking process should be terminated and an error displayed to the user.