Sanjay

QueueCure — Live Clinic Queue Manager

76% of India's 1.5 million clinics run on paper token slips. Patients wait 2–3 hours with zero visibility — they have no idea if the wait is 10 minutes or 90. Receptionists get interrupted every few minutes with "how long more?" and manage everything from memory. Existing digital solutions cost ₹500–₹50,000/month and require app installs, patient logins, and IT setup — completely out of reach for a single-doctor neighbourhood clinic. The problem needed a zero-cost, zero-training, zero-app solution. Process Started by identifying the three hackathon judging criteria: token under 10 seconds, live updates without refresh, and wait time from real data — not hardcoded. Chose React + Node.js + Socket.IO + MongoDB Atlas as the stack. Used WebSocket over polling because true push gives sub-200ms updates, not 5-second delays. Built the receptionist screen first — the 3-field form with auto token generation. Then the patient screen with live queue tracking. Added a real wait-time formula: tokensAhead × avgConsultationTime, where the receptionist sets avg time based on today's actual pace. Then added differentiating features: a Doctor Pace Indicator that auto-detects if the doctor runs faster/slower and suggests updating estimates, a Status Timeline for patients, a "You're Next" chime alert, and a T Results Fully working prototype with 4 screens: Landing, Receptionist Dashboard, Patient Waiting Room, and TV Display. Receptionist can add a patient and generate a token in under 10 seconds. Patient screen updates in under 200ms when "Call Next" is clicked — verified across two browser tabs simultaneously. Wait time is computed from real data using live token counts and receptionist-set consultation time. Doctor Pace Indicator auto-detects speed changes and suggests corrections. Session Summary shows dept-wise breakdown of patients seen. Reflection I'd add WhatsApp notification support from day one — most patients in neighbourhood clinics communicate via WhatsApp, and sending "Your turn is in 2 patients" as a WhatsApp message would eliminate the need to even keep the browser open. I'd also build a multi-doctor mode where each doctor has their own queue running in parallel, with the receptionist routing patients by department. Finally, I'd conduct real user testing at an actual clinic before building — watching a real receptionist use the product for 30 minutes would have surfaced edge cases I had to guess at.