Communication Queue Management System for Urgent Session Prioritization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional communication systems fail to provide efficient scheduling of communication sessions, leading to delays in accessing relevant personnel, such as medical providers, as patients often lack timely information about laboratory results or available contact times.
Innovation Solution
A communication queue management system that receives requests from user devices, retrieves user records, creates events based on these requests, and selects queue positions based on conditions stored in the records, allowing for prioritization and scheduling of communication sessions through multiple channels like phone calls, SMS, and emails.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional first-come-first-served queuing is used, then queue management is simple, but patients with urgent matters (e.g., laboratory results) experience delayed access to providers
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the queuing parameter from simple arrival time to a composite parameter that includes both arrival time and urgency level. Events are assigned urgency levels (e.g., urgent, non-urgent) and the queue position is determined by combining temporal order with urgency classification, allowing urgent patients to jump ahead in the queue without completely redesigning the queuing mechanism
Solution Approach 2:
The queue is segmented into different priority levels or categories based on urgency. Instead of a single linear queue, the system creates multiple queues or segments (urgent queue, non-urgent queue) or inserts markers to separate different urgency levels, allowing differential handling of patients based on their specific needs
2Reliability
If multiple communication channels are used to contact patients, then communication reliability improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The communication manager is designed as a universal component that handles multiple communication channels (phone calls, SMS, emails) through a single integrated interface. This multi-functional approach allows the system to contact patients via different channels without requiring separate management systems for each channel, reducing overall complexity while maintaining reliability
3Productivity
If manual coordination between patients and providers is used, then flexibility in scheduling is maintained, but time and effort required to establish communication sessions increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically notifying patients of their queue position and estimated wait time before the communication session occurs. This advance information allows patients to prepare and providers to schedule accordingly, eliminating the need for back-and-forth coordination and reducing the time required to establish communication sessions
Data Source
AI summary
Processing user requests and calls may include receiving a request to establish a communication session from a user device, retrieving a user record associated with the user device, creating an event based on the request, storing the event in a queue, and selecting a queue position of the event based on one or more conditions stored in the user record.