Virtual Waiting Room Queue Lockout for Telehealth Scheduling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Telehealth systems face inefficiencies in managing virtual waiting rooms, leading to prolonged wait times and resource conflicts when demand exceeds provider availability.
Innovation Solution
Implement a scheduling system that locks out patients from selection in the virtual waiting room after a threshold time, allowing them to schedule encounters without losing their place in line, and returns them if scheduling fails, ensuring fair queue management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If the scheduling system contacts patients to schedule appointments after a threshold time, then patient wait times are reduced, but patients may be locked out of the virtual waiting room and lose their place in line
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by contacting patients to schedule appointments before they actually need to be seen by the provider. This allows the system to proactively manage scheduling rather than reactively handling conflicts, reducing wait times while maintaining queue integrity through advance notification and scheduling attempts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms by monitoring patient responses to scheduling attempts and adjusting the locked-out state accordingly. When scheduling fails, the system returns patients to the waiting room with feedback about their status, ensuring they maintain their place in line while having been notified of scheduling attempts.
2Productivity
If the system allows scheduling attempts for all patients simultaneously, then scheduling completeness is improved, but resource conflicts and inefficiencies increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the patient population into different states: those currently in the virtual waiting room, those locked out during scheduling attempts, and those who have been successfully scheduled. This segmentation allows the scheduling system to process patients in manageable groups rather than simultaneously, reducing resource conflicts and improving overall scheduling efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts patient status in the database based on real-time conditions. When a patient is contacted for scheduling, their status changes to locked-out; when scheduling fails, they return to the waiting room. This dynamic state management optimizes resource usage by preventing duplicate processing while maintaining data integrity.
3Reliability
If the system maintains strict queue order, then patient fairness is improved, but scheduling flexibility and responsiveness decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality changes by differentiating patient treatment based on their specific situation. While maintaining overall queue integrity, the system allows individual patients to be locked out for scheduling attempts and returned to the queue if needed. This localized flexibility preserves fairness for most patients while providing adaptability for those undergoing scheduling processes.
Data Source
AI summary
A telehealth control system and method examine a data structure to determine whether a patient having a waiting location in an order among several patients in a virtual waiting room for a virtual encounter with a healthcare provider has been waiting at least as long as a threshold time period. Responsive to determining that the patient has been waiting for at least as long as the threshold time period, the data structure is changed to indicate that the patient is locked out of the virtual waiting room while a scheduling system of the telehealth system attempts to schedule an upcoming virtual appointment involving the patient. Responsive to being unable to schedule the upcoming virtual appointment involving the patient, the data structure is changed to return the patient to the virtual waiting room without the patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room.