Dr. Amrita's Slot Board

A page that shows which dental chair timings are free today, so a patient walks in at 3.45 and pays cash at the desk.

Who this is for

Dr. Amrita Deshmukh runs a one-chair dental clinic on the first floor above a sweet shop in Nashik Road. One assistant, Sunita, handles the door, the phone, the sterilising and the cash box. Forty to fifty patients a week, most of them from four lanes around. The moment is 11.20 on a Tuesday. Amrita is halfway through a root canal, the phone rings for the fourth time, and Sunita has to guess out loud whether four o'clock is still free.

How the job is done today

There is a long diary on the desk with the date written at the top of each page and timings pencilled down the left. Sunita takes calls between patients and writes names in pencil so she can rub them out. Half the callers say they will come and do not. Walk-ins turn up at one o'clock when the clinic is shut for lunch and sit on the stairs. Regulars send WhatsApp messages to the clinic number at nine at night asking if tomorrow evening is open, and nobody replies till the next morning. Twice a month two people are booked for the same 5.30 and one of them has taken leave from work to be there.

The screens, in order

1. Free right now — Shows a stranger, in one glance on a phone, which timings are still open today and tomorrow at this clinic.
2. Before you come — Tells the patient the address, the stairs, the lunch break, the usual charges for a cleaning or a filling, and that payment is cash or UPI at the desk.
3. Desk view — Lets Sunita tap a timing to close it the second someone sits down, and open it again if they do not turn up.
4. Clinic hours — Sets the working hours, the lunch break, the Sunday and the days Amrita is at the dental college, so the board goes quiet on its own.
5. Cash book — Records what each patient was charged after they leave, and shows one total for the day to count against the cash box.

What it keeps track of

• Timings — which day, which half hour, open or taken, and who is in the chair if taken
• Clinic hours — which days the clinic sits, morning start and evening close, lunch break, and the dates it is shut
• Visits — patient name, phone if they gave one, what was done, which timing they took, how much was charged
• Money taken — which visit, how much came in, cash or UPI, which day, and anything still pending

The one decision that matters

Should a patient be able to book a slot from the site, or only see what is free and come? Booking looks helpful and is the wrong choice here. Strangers who cost nothing to book will hold 5.30 and not arrive, and Amrita loses a chair she could have filled from the stairs. Go with a board that only shows the truth and holds nothing. Sunita is the one hand that closes a timing, and she closes it when a person is actually sitting down. The board can then be honest at every minute of the day, which is the only reason anyone will trust it twice.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out patient histories, x-ray notes and treatment plans. Amrita already has a paper file per patient in the steel almirah, and typing eleven years of them in would take longer than she has. The board's job is only the next four hours. Also leave out reminder messages. Someone who checked the site an hour ago does not need a reminder, and the first version should not be trusted with the clinic's phone number.

How you would know it worked

A man Sunita has never seen climbs the stairs at 3.40 on a Thursday, says the site showed 3.45 open, and the chair is empty when he says it. By the second week the phone stops ringing during the morning slots.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a small dental clinic in Nashik with one chair and one assistant. I want a website where anybody can open it on a phone and see which timings are free today and tomorrow, in half hour blocks, free ones in green and the taken ones plainly greyed out. No booking and no names on the public page, just the address, the stairs, our lunch break and our usual charges. On the clinic phone my assistant should get a simple page to tap a timing shut the moment a patient sits down, and open it again if they do not come. She should be able to set our working hours, the lunch break and the days we are closed once, so the board handles itself. After each patient she writes the name, what was done and how much was taken, and at day end she sees one total to count against the cash box. It has to load quickly on an old phone.