Appointment Scheduler

I'm working on a solution for scheduling patient appointments on a layout that shows seven days at a time. I created a unique relationship for each appointment slot for each day of the week so that when appointments are made, the patient's name is displayed next to the appropriate time. This makes it easier to see exactly which appointment slots are available and how much time (space) is between any two appointments. A button is then assigned to each slot so that clicking on the space calls up the layout for creating appointments in a new window, or shows the appointment if one exists for that time.

Okay, so the problem I've run into is that creating new appointments takes a long time, anywhere from 10-20 seconds for the script to open a new window and create a new record. Am I stuck? Are there any alternatives?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.