While-U-Wait: A Service-Based Solution for Emergency Room Overcrowding

Prolonged waiting and overcrowding at hospital emergency departments remain problematic. In spite of much effort from high-ranking hospital directors and policy makers, the time patients spend in hospital emergency departments awaiting treatment is on a continuous rise. An increase in the demand for the emergency department’s service, in addition to the high complexity of the hospital and healthcare systems is thought responsible for the difficulty in finding sustainable solutions for the rise. Rather than focusing on how to reduce the prolonged waiting time and overcrowding, the present paper looked at altering the perception of patients waiting to receive medical treatment with respect to their waiting time. In doing so, the aim was to reduce the much observed waiting associated stress and hence improve their overall experience and satisfaction with the received healthcare service. A Web-based virtual waiting platform was developed, which communicated individual waiting times to its users as well as other relevant messages. The waiting information was obtained through the platform’s ability to interface with an organization’s queueing management systems, while the other sets of information were added manually by the users and emergency department employees. As future scope, a two-part clinical utility study is laid out, which would answer the questions of adoptability and impact. Finally, the platform’s adaptability to all sectors where waiting is unavoidable, undesired, and prolonged is described. In which, the platform would enable its users to queue for multiple services and products simultaneously. Users will be able to optimize their day, transiting from one appointment to the next, and arriving at points of service just in time. This embodies the principle of off-site queueing and just-in-time arrival.