suchitha

Live Digital Queue Manager for Clinics

Neighbourhood clinics in India still depend on paper token slips, verbal announcements, and manual queue tracking. Patients often wait 2-3 hours without knowing their position in the queue, leading to frustration and repeated inquiries at the reception. Receptionists must handle registrations, assign tokens, answer patient questions, and manage queue progression simultaneously. The goal was to build a digital queue management system that allows fast patient registration, provides live queue visibility on mobile devices, and generates realistic wait-time estimates using actual consultation data Process I designed the system around two user interfaces: a receptionist dashboard and a patient waiting-room view. To keep both screens synchronized, I initially explored periodic polling but found it introduced delays and unnecessary network requests. I switched to Socket.IO with WebSockets, enabling instant updates whenever a patient was added or a token was called. For wait-time estimation, I first used a fixed consultation duration, but the predictions became inaccurate when consultation lengths varied. To improve accuracy, I implemented an Exponential Moving Average (EMA) model that continuously learns from completed consultations. I then tested live synchronization, queue progression, priority handling, and wait-time calculations to ensure reliability and responsiveness. Results The system allows receptionists to register patients and assign tokens in under 10 seconds. Queue updates are synchronized instantly across all connected screens without page refreshes. Patients can view their token status, tokens ahead, and estimated wait times directly from their phones. Unlike traditional systems, wait estimates are generated using real consultation data through an adaptive EMA algorithm, making predictions more accurate as clinic activity changes throughout the day. Reflection With more time, I would add WhatsApp and SMS notifications so patients can leave the waiting area and receive alerts before their turn. I would also introduce cloud-based storage and analytics dashboards to help clinic owners track patient flow, peak hours, and doctor performance. Conducting usability tests with real receptionists and patients would provide valuable feedback for improving accessibility, workflow efficiency, and overall user experience.