Smart Triage Waiting Room System (Pet Parent + Clinic Perspective)

[harshit-yc]

Context

We’ve seen a highly effective ER-style triage waiting room flow:

• Walk-ins are assessed quickly for urgency
• They receive a patient number (not name) for privacy
• A waiting room display shows:
  • triage levels being served
  • average waiting time per level
• Users can track wait time without repeatedly asking front desk

Yosemite Crew can adapt this for veterinary clinics for:

• emergencies / urgent care
• walk-ins
• same-day urgent appointments
• future AI-driven symptom intake → triage suggestions

This should support both:

• Pet parent view (mobile app + public display)
• Clinic staff view (queue management + prioritization)

Guiding questions for community discussion

Triage model: Should we use a standard 1–5 system, or clinic-configurable categories?

Privacy: Should the public screen show only anonymous patient numbers + level (recommended)?

Owner UX: Should pet parents see exact queue position or only estimated wait time?

Queue rules: How do we handle scheduled appointments vs triage/walk-ins? Can emergencies override booked slots?

Staff controls: How easily can staff move cases between levels? Do we need drag-and-drop reorder?

Notifications: Push notification when “you’re next”? SMS fallback?

Multi-location: How should this work across multiple clinic locations or multiple waiting rooms?

Detailed overview

Design (Pet Parent)

• In-app waiting status card:
  • assigned triage level
  • estimated wait time
  • live updates
  • push notification near call time
• Optional: anonymous patient number shown in app + on display

Design (Clinic)

• Triage queue inside PMS:
  • filter by triage level
  • reorder/adjust priority
  • assign room/provider
  • “Call next” workflow
• “Waiting Room TV Mode”:
  • big readable display
  • now-serving + average wait per level
  • auto-refresh

Development

• Real-time updates (WebSockets / SSE)
• Wait-time estimation logic (based on historical service time + active load)
• TV-mode web page deployable to smart TVs via URL

Backend/API

• Queue management service
• Triage configuration per clinic
• Wait-time estimation service
• Push notification hooks

Testing

• Load testing (busy ER scenarios)
• Accuracy of wait time estimates
• Real-time sync across devices
• Privacy validation (no names on public display)

User benefits

Pet parents: Transparency + reduced anxiety; less front desk back-and-forth.
Clinics: Clear prioritization + reduced operational chaos.
Platform: Differentiated ER/urgent-care capable PMS; future AI triage-ready.

Potential meta level deliverables

• Triage levels configuration module
• Real-time queue engine
• Waiting Room TV mode dashboard
• Mobile live queue tracking
• Push notification integration
• AI intake → triage suggestion mapping (future)