Singireddy Sahasra Reddy

Queue Cure: Real-Time Patient Queue Management System

Traditional hospital waiting rooms are broken. Patients suffer from anxiety, tied to crowded, infection-prone rooms because they fear missing their turn. Meanwhile, receptionists waste hours managing crowds instead of administrative tasks. Healthcare desperately needs a digital solution that completely decouples the "queue" from the physical "waiting room" to restore safety, transparency, and efficiency. Process We mapped the user journeys of a stressed receptionist and an anxious patient, choosing Next.js for the UI and Express for the backend. Real-time synchronization was non-negotiable. We initially considered HTTP polling but realized the latency and server load would be unacceptable, so we quickly pivoted to Socket.IO for instant, sub-50ms updates. Our biggest technical hurdle was handling network disconnects. We initially tried keeping active queue states in server memory, but this broke down during server restarts. We solved this by moving all state management to MongoDB, ensuring users can close tabs, lose mobile connection, and reconnect without ever losing their place in line. Results The system achieved <50ms real-time synchronization between the receptionist dashboard and mobile patient views. By digitizing the queue, we successfully eliminated the need for patients to remain in a physical waiting room, completely decentralizing the wait experience. During testing, the Socket.IO server handled concurrent connections flawlessly, instantly updating dynamic wait times across all connected clients the moment a token was called. The dual-sided interface proved highly intuitive, requiring zero onboarding for patients. Reflection While the real-time sync is incredibly robust, the current system relies on patients manually typing their token number into the web app to track their status. If I were to iterate on this, I would implement QR code generation on the physical token slips. A patient could simply scan the code with their phone camera to instantly open their exact, pre-filled tracking page—removing all friction. Additionally, I would integrate a service like Twilio for SMS fallback notifications, ensuring patients without reliable internet access still receive a text when they are 2nd or 3rd in line.