JP2009205381A - Waiting management server, client device, waiting management method, and control method for client device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve proper management which is not affected by constraint as much as possible when a person waiting for his or her turn performs business by using the waiting time. <P>SOLUTION: A service server 100 put in a communication validating state with a client who is waiting for his or her turn via a network receives a turn exchange request to a client whose turn is next to that of the pertinent from the client, and transmits an inquiry for the validity/invalidity of the turn exchange to the client who receives the turn exchange request, and when the turn exchange is permitted, the service server 100 exchanges the order of the client who has made the request and the order of the client who has received the request. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a turn waiting management server, a client device, a turn waiting management method, and a control method for a client device, and more particularly, to a technique for appropriately changing a waiting order.

  As technologies related to the present invention, there are technologies described in Patent Documents 1 to 3. The technique described in Patent Document 1 is a technique for making a medical examination reservation in a hospital and browsing medical examination waiting information on a personal computer or a portable terminal. In addition, the technique described in Patent Document 2 is such that when a patient waiting for examination transmits “request for calling order when reaching his / her turn” from his / her mobile terminal or the like, It is a device that sends mail.

Moreover, although the technique described in Patent Document 3 describes a technique for changing the order in which services are provided, the order in which services are provided is changed according to the priority specified by the service requester and the points that the service requester has. ing.
JP 2002-132931 A JP 2007-183891 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-086752

  In various aspects of social life, the action of “waiting for turn” is required. For example, waiting for a medical examination, waiting for a turn when necessary procedures are performed at a bank or post office, a long line in using amusement park attractions, and the like. However, because the waiting time is felt ineffective for many people, when they receive a numbered ticket, they often go out and do other errands. However, there may be a problem in that it may not be possible to return to the counter in time, even though your turn has come. This problem will be explained using a hospital example.

  A patient who wants to see a doctor in the hospital waits for his / her turn until he / she comes in, but if the waiting time for his / her turn is likely to increase, he / she goes out to finish another task. Some patients are effectively using the waiting time. Even if it is possible to browse the waiting order information of the examination or to receive a call when one's turn is approaching, when the patient actually arrives and receives the call in the examination waiting room, the patient I couldn't get a medical examination if I was not there, and eventually I had to go back to the medical examination waiting room in time for my turn.

  In other words, if a patient on the go using the hospital waiting time is not in time to return to the hospital waiting room before his / her turn arrives and the call is received, the patient actually sees the patient even if he / she has received the examination. You will not be able to receive a medical examination, and you will have to go to the medical examination again.

  In the techniques described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, the patient who is going out using the waiting time can check his / her turn even from the outside, or his / her turn has arrived. You can be notified at that time. However, in practice, it is often the case that you cannot return to the time to reach your rank even if you can confirm your rank on the go by unexpectedly prolonging the business on the go. is there. Or, because you are out, you may not be in time even if you get a notification that you have reached your turn. Therefore, even if the waiting time is used, there are considerable restrictions on the tasks to be completed at that time, from the psychological viewpoint of the patient. On the other hand, Patent Document 3 changes the order according to the priority and the point, but is intended to advance the order of the higher priority and cannot deal with the above-mentioned problems. Absent.

  Therefore, in view of the above circumstances, the present invention provides a turn waiting management server, a client device, a turn waiting management method, and a control of a client device that appropriately change the turn in response to a turn change request from a client waiting for a turn. It aims to provide a method.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has the following characteristics.

  The turn waiting management server according to the present invention is a turn waiting management server that is in a state capable of communicating with a client that waits for a turn through a network, and stores storage means that associates the order information of the client and the client, When a rank change request for a client whose waiting order is later than the client is received from the client that makes the rank change request, the rank change request is transmitted to the client that receives the rank change request, and the change permission is permitted from the client that receives the rank change request. When the reply is received, the control unit performs control for switching the order of the requesting client and the requesting client.

  The client device according to the present invention is a client device in a state capable of communicating with the turn waiting management server via a network, and is directed to the turn waiting management server with respect to other client devices having a waiting order after the own device. And a means for transmitting an order change request.

  A turn waiting management method according to the present invention is a turn waiting management method for managing clients that wait for a turn, a storage step that stores the waiting order information of the client and the client in association with each other, and a client that makes a turn change request. The process of receiving the order change request, and if the order change request is a request made to a client whose waiting order is later than the requesting client, the order change request is transmitted to the client that receives the order change request. And a step of performing control to switch the order of the client that has made the request and the client that has received the request when a reply permitting the exchange is received from the client that has received the order change request.

  A method for controlling a client device according to the present invention is a method for controlling a client device in a state in which it can communicate with a turn waiting management server via a network. A step of transmitting a rank change request to another client device.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately change the rank in response to a rank change request from a client waiting for the turn.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
(First embodiment)
The configuration of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, the present embodiment is a mobile terminal C1, C2, Cn (hereinafter sometimes collectively referred to as a mobile terminal C) in which one person waiting for the turn carries one person, and a turn waiting for managing the turn waiting. This is a server / client system in which the service server 100 functioning as a management server can communicate via a network.

  The configuration of the service server 100 will be described with reference to FIG. The service server 100 includes a waiting order DB 103, a main control unit 101, and the like. The waiting order DB 103 stores the ranking information of each portable terminal C and each portable terminal C in association with each other. For example, the ranking information “No. 1” for the portable terminal C1, the ranking information “No. 2” for the portable terminal C2, the ranking information “No. n” for the portable terminal Cn, and the like.

  When the main control unit 101 receives a rank change request from a certain portable terminal (hereinafter referred to as portable terminal A), the main control unit 101 determines whether or not the rank change request is made toward a lower rank order. To do. This is done by comparing the rank information of the terminal (hereinafter referred to as portable terminal B) receiving the rank change request and the rank information of portable terminal A with reference to the waiting rank DB 103. It should be noted that the order change request includes the order of the exchange destination.

  Next, the control unit 101 determines that the order of the mobile terminal B is lower than the order of the mobile terminal A, and the order change request is a request made to a client whose waiting order is later than the requesting client. If so, a request for changing the order is transmitted to the mobile terminal B.

  Next, when the control means 101 receives a reply from the mobile terminal B to permit the order change request, the control means 101 performs control to switch the order of the mobile terminal A and the order of the mobile terminal B.

  Since the present embodiment operates as described above, it is possible to appropriately change the rank in response to a rank change request from a client waiting for the turn. Hereinafter, a second embodiment taking an example of a hospital will be shown and described in more detail.

(Second Embodiment)
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a turn waiting management system according to the present embodiment. Below, the turn waiting management system of this embodiment is demonstrated using the example in the hospital waiting for a medical examination. Each patient waiting for a hospital visit owns a mobile device and is either waiting for the turn to receive a call in the hospital waiting room or is out of the hospital while waiting for the turn Shall.

  In FIG. 1, the present embodiment is configured such that each mobile terminal C1, C2, Cn (hereinafter sometimes collectively referred to as a mobile terminal C) owned by a patient waiting for medical examination and a hospital service server 100 are connected to a network. It is a server client system that is ready to communicate via As the network, the Internet or an intranet can be used. Note that the portable terminal C is not limited to “owned” by the patient. It may be rented out by a hospital and is preferably carried by the patient.

  The configuration of the service server 100 will be described with reference to FIG. The service server 100 includes a “waiting order DB 103” and a “mail address DB 104” as databases (hereinafter referred to as DB), and further includes a network interface 102 for communicating with a network, and a main control unit 101. The main control unit 101 performs operation of each DB, transmission / reception of data with a client (each mobile terminal C) on the network, and the like. The main control unit 101 also has a function of communicating with each mobile terminal C using, for example, electronic mail, and a function of receiving a data communication from each mobile terminal C and performing a predetermined operation.

  The configuration of the waiting order DB 103 will be described with reference to FIG. The waiting order DB 103 manages “waiting order” and “patient number” of patients waiting for medical examination at the hospital.

  The configuration of the mail address DB 103 will be described with reference to FIG. The e-mail address DB 104 manages e-mail addresses of portable terminals owned by patients waiting for medical examination at a hospital.

  Next, using the sequence diagram of FIG. 5, a patient waiting for a medical examination in a hospital makes a “waiting order change request” to another patient waiting for a medical examination, and then the result of “permitted / denied”. An outline of the operation until notification is received will be described.

  When the patient's portable terminal A making a request for changing the waiting order makes a request for waiting order information in step S501, "waiting order information" is received from the waiting order DB 103 managed by the service server 100 in step S502.

  In step S503, the patient who requests to change the waiting order selects “waiting order for which replacement is desired” in a state where “waiting order information” is displayed on the screen of his / her mobile terminal A, and the service server “Replacement request data” is transmitted to 100.

  Then, in step S504, the service server 100 transmits, to the portable terminal B of “patient receiving a request for changing the waiting order”, a notification “request for changing the waiting order” using e-mail or the like. Here, the control unit 101 determines whether or not the ranking of the portable terminal B is after the ranking of the portable terminal A, and notifies the portable terminal B when the ranking of the portable terminal B is not after the ranking of the portable terminal A. May not be transmitted.

  After confirming the notification transmitted in step S505, the patient who has received the waiting order switching request inputs an answer of “permitted / not permitted” to the waiting order switching request on his / her portable terminal B. Then, the patient's portable terminal B that has received the request for changing the waiting order transmits an answer of “permitted / not permitted” to the service server 100.

  In step S506, when the service server 100 receives a “permitted / unpermitted” response, the mobile terminal A receives a “permitted / unpermitted” result notification from the service server 100 by e-mail or the like. The patient who has made the request for changing the waiting order confirms the result notification of “permitted / not permitted” transmitted to his / her mobile terminal A in step S507.

  Next, with respect to the sequence diagram of FIG. 5, using the flowcharts of FIGS. 6 to 14, the mobile terminal A of the patient who makes a request for switching the waiting order, the mobile terminal B of the patient who receives the replacement request, and the service server 100 The operation will be described in each step.

  6 (S601 to S604) and FIG. 13 (S1301 to S1303), an example of the waiting order information display request (operation of the mobile terminal A) in step S501 in FIG. 5 will be described.

  The patient who wants to make a request for changing the waiting order executes the program on his portable terminal A in step S601. The portable terminal A requests “waiting order information” to the service server 100 in step S602 on the program screen being executed. If the mobile terminal A issues a 10-second timer in step S603 immediately after requesting “waiting order information”, it enters a waiting state for receiving “waiting order information” in step S604.

The processing at the time of 10-second timeout will be described using FIG.
If the mobile terminal A becomes out of service immediately after requesting the “waiting order information”, and the “waiting for reception of waiting order information” state in step S604 becomes 10 seconds or longer, the mobile terminal A In step S1301, “10-second timeout” is set. In this case, the program being executed on the mobile terminal A displays an error message “10-second timeout” on the screen of the mobile terminal A in step S1302. In step S1303, the patient who is requesting the waiting order information ends the program being executed and ends the process.

  With reference to FIG. 7 (S701 to S702), an example of transmission of waiting order information (operation of the service server 100) in step S502 in FIG. 5 will be described.

  In step S701, when the service server 100 receives the “waiting order information” request from the portable terminal A, the information of the “waiting order DB 103” is transmitted to the portable terminal A in step S702.

  8 (S801 to S807) and FIG. 14 (S1401 to S1403), an example of transmission of replacement request data (operation of the mobile terminal A) in step S503 in FIG. 5 will be described.

  When the mobile terminal A receives “waiting order information” in step S801 on the program screen being executed, in step S802, the mobile terminal A executes “waiting order information” on the screen of the mobile terminal A by the program being executed on the mobile terminal A. Is displayed. When the display of the waiting order information is completed, in step S803, the mobile terminal A issues a 3-minute timer according to the program being executed.

  In step S804, the patient who has made a request for changing the waiting order selects “waiting order for requesting replacement” on the program screen being executed on his / her mobile terminal A on which the waiting order information is displayed. In step S805, the mobile terminal A checks the waiting order selected by the “patient making a request for changing the waiting order” by the program being executed.

  If the waiting order selected here is an order prior to the current waiting order, the patient who has made the “waiting order replacement request” re-enters the “waiting order to request replacement” in step S804. Make input. If the selected waiting rank is a rank later than the current waiting rank, the portable terminal A sends “waiting rank data to be requested for replacement” to the service server 100 in step S806 by the program being executed. Send. When the transmission to the service server 100 is completed, the portable terminal A enters a waiting state as a result of the “wait order switching request” in step S807.

With reference to FIG. 14, the processing at the time of timeout for 3 minutes will be described.
If the “permitted / non-permitted” response from the “patient who wants to change the waiting order” is not received, and the “waiting for replacement request result” state in step S807 is 3 minutes or more, step S1401 Will result in a “3 minute timeout”. In this case, the program being executed on the mobile terminal A is “not allowed after 3 minutes” on the screen of the mobile terminal A of the patient who is requesting “change of waiting order” in step S1402. Displays an error message. In step S1403, the portable terminal of the patient who is requesting the waiting order information ends the program being executed and ends the process.

  With reference to FIG. 9 (S901 to S902), an example of notification of waiting order change request (operation of the service server 100) to the patient who wants to request replacement in step S504 in FIG. 5 will be described.

  When the service server 100 receives the “waiting order switching request data” transmitted from the portable terminal A in step S901, the service server 100 refers to the destination address of the portable terminal of the patient to be requested for replacement in the mail address DB 104, thereby B's email address can be confirmed. In step S <b> 902, the service server 100 notifies the mobile terminal A that a “request for changing the waiting order” is issued from the patient waiting for examination who owns the mobile terminal A, for example, by sending an e-mail. Here, the control unit 101 determines whether or not the ranking of the portable terminal B is after the ranking of the portable terminal A. If the ranking of the portable terminal B is not after the ranking of the portable terminal A, the control unit 101 determines The notification may not be transmitted.

  FIG. 10 (S1001 to S1005) is used to notify permission / non-permission in step S505 in FIG. 5 (operation of mobile terminal B (the mobile terminal of the patient who has received the replacement request permits “waiting order switching request”). An example of the operation until notification of non-permission) will be described.

  When the mobile terminal B of the patient who has received the request for changing the waiting order receives a notification of “request for changing the waiting order”, it notifies that there is a notification by ringing a ringtone or the like. The patient who has received the request for changing the waiting order displays a notification on his portable terminal B and confirms the content. After confirming the contents of the notification, when the portable terminal B of the patient who has received the request for changing the waiting order starts the program in S1001, any one of “permitted / not permitted” for the request for changing the waiting order in steps S1002 to S1003. Wait for input.

  When the patient who has received the request for changing the waiting order inputs and transmits one of “permitted / not permitted” in step S1003, in step S1004, the portable terminal B performs “permitted / not permitted” by the program being executed. The data is transmitted to the service server 100. When the transmission to the service server 100 is completed, the patient who has received the “waiting order switching request” from the mobile terminal A terminates the program being executed on the mobile terminal B in step S1005.

  11 (S1101 to S1105), notification of the result of the exchange request in step S506 in FIG. 5 (until the result of the exchange request is sent to the patient who has made the operation of the service server 100 (the request for exchanging the waiting order). An example of the operation)) will be described.

  In step S <b> 1101, the service server 100 receives “permitted / denied” data transmitted from the mobile terminal B. In step S1102, if the switching of the waiting order is permitted, in step S1103, the service server 100 updates the information in the waiting order DB 103 based on the “waiting order data to be requested for replacement”.

  When the information update in the service server 100 is completed, in step S1104, the service server 100 sends to the portable terminal A of the patient who has made a request for changing the waiting order, "the request for changing the waiting order is permitted, and the information update is completed. For example, using e-mail. In step S1102, if the change of the waiting order is not permitted, in step S1105, the service server 100 uses “e-mail” indicating that “the request for changing the waiting order has not been permitted” to the mobile terminal A. To notify.

  12 (S1201 to S1202), confirmation of permission / non-permission notification in step S507 in FIG. 5 (operation of portable terminal A (notification of “permission / non-permission” from the patient who received the replacement request). An example of the operation to be confirmed)) will be described.

  When the portable terminal A of the patient who has made a request for changing the waiting order receives a notification of “result of changing the waiting order” in step S1201, it notifies that there is a notification by ringing a ringtone or the like. The portable terminal A of the patient who has made the request for changing the waiting order displays a notification in step S1201. A notification is displayed on his / her mobile terminal A to confirm “permitted / not permitted”. If the patient who has made the request for changing the waiting order confirms the result of “permitted / not permitted”, the portable terminal A terminates the program being executed (step 1202), and all the processes are completed.

  According to the present embodiment, a patient who is waiting for a medical checkup is using a mobile terminal from the outside in a situation where he / she cannot go back to the medical checkup room in time for his / her medical checkup time while using the waiting time. The request of “changing the waiting order with other patients” can be made. Therefore, for example, even if the outing business is prolonged or when going out far away, by changing the order, the waiting order can be made backward, so that the work that can be done while going out The limit is reduced. For patients who go out, there is no psychological restriction of having to return early. On the other hand, if the patient who has received the order change request is a patient waiting in the examination waiting room, it is generally preferable that the order is advanced, and therefore it is also preferable for the patient who has received the change request. If it is not desirable for the patient who received the replacement request to advance the order, the patient may reject the replacement. Alternatively, if the request processing is to be completed within a predetermined time as in the above-mentioned example of “3 minute timeout”, if it is not preferable for the patient to advance the order, it can be left unattended even if a replacement request is received. It ’s fine. In this way, for patients who go out using waiting time, other tasks can be performed without being restricted by waiting time, and waiting time can be effectively used, and for patients waiting in the waiting room, waiting time May be shortened. Moreover, since it is less likely that the patient whose turn has been turned will not be in the waiting room, there is no restriction on the psychological aspect of the patient who intends to effectively use the waiting time.

  The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, in the second embodiment, the application example of waiting for a medical examination is shown. However, various situations such as waiting in turn at a bank, a post office, an amusement park attraction, a restaurant, etc. Needless to say, this is applicable.

It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of the waiting order waiting management system which concerns on suitable embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the service server of the waiting order waiting management system which concerns on suitable embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating waiting order DB of this embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating mail address DB of this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the whole operation | movement of this embodiment. It is a flowchart (the 1) which shows a part of operation | movement of this embodiment. It is a flowchart (the 2) which shows a part of operation | movement of this embodiment. It is a flowchart (the 3) which shows a part of operation | movement of this embodiment. It is a flowchart (the 4) which shows a part of operation | movement of this embodiment. It is a flowchart (the 5) which shows a part of operation | movement of this embodiment. It is a flowchart (the 6) which shows a part of operation | movement of this embodiment. It is a flowchart (the 7) which shows a part of operation | movement of this embodiment. It is a flowchart (the 8) which shows a part of operation | movement of this embodiment. It is a flowchart (the 9) which shows a part of operation | movement of this embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

100 Service Server 101 Main Control Unit 102 Network Interface 103 Waiting Order DB
104 Mail address DB
A, B, C1, C2, Cn mobile terminals

Claims (10)

A turn waiting management server in a state capable of communicating with a client waiting for turn over a network,
Storage means for storing client and client ranking information in association with each other;
When a rank change request for a client whose waiting order is later than the client is received from the client that issues the rank change request, the rank change request is transmitted to the client that receives the rank change request, and the client that receives the rank change request is allowed to change. Control means for performing control to switch the order of the client that has made the request and the client that has received the request,
A waiting-waiting management server characterized by comprising:   When the control means receives a reply not permitting replacement from the client that receives the order change request, the control means performs control to notify the client that has made the order change request that the change request has been rejected. The turn waiting management server according to claim 1, wherein:   3. The order waiting management server according to claim 1, wherein, when receiving an inquiry about a waiting order from a client, the control means refers to the order information of the client inquiring from the storage means and transmits the order. .   2. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein the control unit terminates the processing of the order change request when no reply is received even after a predetermined time has elapsed after transmitting the order change request to the client receiving the order change request. 4. The turn waiting management server according to claim 1. A client device in a state capable of communicating with a waiting management server via a network,
A client device comprising: means for transmitting a request for changing the order to another client device having a waiting order after the own device to the waiting management server. Means for receiving the order change request;
The client apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a means for sending a reply indicating whether the order change request is accepted.   When sending the order change request, it has an input means for inputting the desired replacement order, and if the desired replacement order input by the input means is before the waiting order of its own device, the input is made. 7. The client device according to claim 5, wherein the client device is invalidated.   The client apparatus according to any one of claims 5 to 7, further comprising means for inquiring the waiting order management server of the waiting order of the own apparatus. A queue management method for managing clients waiting for a queue,
A storing step of storing the waiting order information of the client and the client in association with each other;
Receiving a reordering request from a client making a reordering request;
When the order change request is a request to be made to a client whose waiting order is later than that of the requesting client, a step of sending the order change request to the client that receives the order change request;
When receiving a reply permitting replacement from the client that receives the order change request, performing a control to change the order of the client that made the request and the client that received the request;
The waiting-list management method characterized by including.   A method of controlling a client device that is in a state of being able to communicate with a turn waiting management server via a network, wherein a turn change request is sent to a turn waiting management server to another client device having a waiting order after the own device. A method for controlling a client device, comprising a step of transmitting.

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