Design of a GSM-Enabled Patient Appointment System for EBSU Medical Centre

Long waiting times and poor appointment coordination at university medical centres in Nigeria lead to dissatisfaction among students and suboptimal use of healthcare personnel. This study designs a GSM-enabled patient appointment system for the Medical Centre at Ebonyi State University (EBSU), allowing students to book, reschedule, and receive SMS reminders for medical appointments without requiring a smartphone or internet connection. The system architecture comprises a web-based administrative backend, a USSD interface for appointment booking via ordinary mobile phones, and an SMS notification engine powered by the Africa's Talking API. The development methodology followed the Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM). System modules were developed in PHP with MySQL data management and deployed on a local WAMP server for internal testing. Evaluation involved 80 student participants and 10 medical staff over a five-week pilot period. Results show that appointment no-show rates declined from 34 percent to 12 percent following SMS reminder implementation. Booking processing time was reduced from an average of 22 minutes manually to under 3 minutes via USSD. Staff reported reduced clerical workload by approximately 50 percent. The study concludes that GSM-based appointment systems combining USSD and SMS effectively bridge the digital divide in Nigerian university healthcare settings. Further development should incorporate electronic medical record integration and telemedicine scheduling support.