Improved Communications within a Clinic through the Use of a Realtime Patient Queue

Abstract

Communication within a medium to large sized medical clinic is difficult. The problems of exchanging information among muses, technicians and doctors have become a critical issue in many clinics. These problems manifest themselves in patient waiting rooms by1. forgotten patients,2. inequitable scheduling of physician consultation,3. low staff morale due to ambiguous verbal communication, and4. anxiety and discomfort on the part of the patients.In an attempt to solve these problems a computerized patient queue was developed in the radiation therapy clinic at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR). This system has been used successfully since 1975.