Running a Chamber Complex: Serials, the Waiting-Room TV and Each Doctor's Share

Walk into a consultancy centre in Dhaka or Chattogram at six in the evening. Eight or ten doctors are sitting, each with their own queue; the desk is giving serials, taking fees and answering the phone; the waiting area is full of people asking which number is being served. At the end of the month the owner sits down with a register and works out what each doctor is owed, and someone always disputes the figure. SihatSuite's Doctor Consultancy package is built for exactly this building.

What a chamber complex has to get right

• A separate queue for every doctor, each with its own fee and its own pace.
• The consultation fee taken at the desk, once, with a receipt the patient keeps.
• A clear answer to "when is my turn?" that does not need the desk to pick up the phone.
• A doctor's leave, or another doctor sitting in, without a crowd of people who came for nothing.
• Each doctor's share worked out from money that actually came in, in a way the doctor can check.

Sittings and fees, per doctor

Every doctor has a weekly schedule of sittings — Saturday and Tuesday evenings, say — and each sitting carries its own fees: one for a new patient, one for a follow-up within a window the doctor sets, and one for a report review. A serial limit and the minutes per patient belong to the sitting too, so the desk never gives serial 60 to a doctor who sees 40, and the estimated times patients see are honest. The package comes with fifteen doctor logins; the desk, assistants and accounts have their own staff logins.

One serial, one bill

The desk gives the next serial against the doctor's sitting in a few seconds and takes the fee by cash, card or bKash. The serial's consultation invoice is raised and paid in the same step — there is no separate billing screen to forget. A discount above the threshold the centre sets needs a reason. The patient walks away with a slip and a live link on their phone that shows the number now being served, how many people are ahead, and an estimated time worked out from the doctor's own pace that evening.

The same now-serving board plays on any TV in the waiting area, in Bangla numerals, paired by a code and nothing else. On Diagnostic Management the TV display is a ৳500 add-on; in Doctor Consultancy it is part of the package, because a chamber complex lives on that screen.

The doctor sees only their own queue

A doctor logs in and sees their own queue, calls the next patient from it, and writes on the same prescription pad every SihatSuite doctor uses, with the patient's history and the doctor's own templates. A doctor's login can move or call only their own serials, and that is checked on the server, not just hidden in the screen; the desk sees everyone's. Roles for the desk, assistants and consulting doctors are ready to apply.

Each doctor's share, on money actually collected

This is the part that ends the month-end argument. Each doctor has a fee rule — a percentage of the consultation fee or a fixed sum per visit, set per doctor or per sitting — and the rule says what happens to a discount: shared in proportion, absorbed by the centre, or taken from the doctor's side. The share is earned as the patient pays, never on an unpaid bill, so a cancelled or unpaid consultation earns nothing. Changing a doctor's rule applies from that day; it never rewrites earlier visits.

The centre approves the earned entries and pays them out as one expense in the cash book, with a printable statement to hand the doctor. A doctor can open their own statement from their login and see every visit behind the figure, and raise a query on any line they think is wrong; the query sits on the entry until the centre answers it. Payouts go through an accounting permission, and a correction after a payout is a new entry, so the history stays as it was.

When a doctor is away

A doctor on leave, a cancelled sitting or another doctor sitting in is a schedule exception, not a scramble. The booked serials are cancelled or moved to the replacement, and each patient holding a serial gets an SMS when SMS notices are set up for the centre (message credits apply). Deleting the exception reopens the sitting.

Online serial booking, when the centre wants it

Online booking is off by default. Once the centre switches it on, patients book a serial against a sitting from the centre's website or the patient portal, inside the same serial limit the desk works to. The same patient cannot take two serials in one sitting, and a patient can cancel their own serial until the fee is on an invoice. There is no online fee payment: the fee is still taken at the desk.

Already on the Prescription package?

A doctor or centre on SihatSuite's Prescription package upgrades in place. It is a package change on the same account: the doctors, chambers and every prescription stay, and the desk, serials, TV display and settlement appear. At today's prices the upgrade is ৳750 a month more.

What it costs, and what it does not do

As of October 2026, Doctor Consultancy is ৳1,500 a month. That includes the prescription pad for every doctor, the serials with live links and the TV display, one consultation invoice per serial, settlement with statements and payouts, leave and replacement notices, patient history, the cash book and profit and loss, and fifteen doctor logins. SMS message credits are separate. It does not do telemedicine, online fee payment, beds or admitted patients; a clinic with a treatment room or a small theatre wants the Clinic Management package instead. The web application needs an internet connection.

Related resources

• Doctor Consultancy Management System
• Running a chamber serial system patients trust
• Why patients miss their serial
• E-prescription software for doctors
• Software for an outpatient clinic with a day-care theatre
• Pricing