Hospital Queue Management System

Every OPD runs its queue differently: some number tokens per doctor, some take the fee after the consult, some keep places for walk-ins or run separate queues for women and men. EloHIMS issues the token, keeps the queue and runs the waiting-room display — and each of those choices is a setting in one Queue rules panel, not a workaround at the counter.

Tokens, queue and display — every rule a setting

Token numbering: per doctor, per department or hospital-wide

Per department gives each clinic one run of numbers for the day. Per doctor starts every doctor at 1, so two doctors in the same clinic each have their own token 1, 2, 3 — tokens issued to the clinic with no doctor named get a run of their own. Hospital-wide keeps a single sequence across every department.

Under per-doctor numbering, each doctor's clinic can carry its own token prefix, so the printed numbers stay distinct. The queue board shows each token's doctor, and the fee counter uses the same numbering rule as the desk.

Fee before or after the consult — or free

Before is the familiar counter flow: paying the fee issues the token. With after or at checkout, the token is issued unpaid and the desk cannot mark it served until the fee is collected. The board shows a Collect fee button that opens the bill already filled in for that token, and the payment is recorded once, against that patient and visit.

Free suits clinics that charge nothing: a zero fee issues the token with no bill, no payment and no cashier shift involved. A clinic that does have a fee still bills it.

Free and discounted follow-ups

Each department sets a follow-up window in days. A patient who returns inside that window after a signed consult is recognised as a follow-up at the fee counter, and the hospital chooses what that means: free, discounted by a set percentage, or charged in full.

The reduction is recorded on the bill as a policy discount, so the cashier needs no discount right to apply it, and the Collect OPD Fee dialog shows the follow-up note and the net amount. A fully free follow-up is a paid bill of Rs 0 — the visit is still on record, with no payment asked.

Vitals before the doctor

When vitals are mandatory, neither the desk nor the doctor's consult can move a waiting patient forward until vitals have been recorded that day. The board marks the token with a red Vitals needed chip and hides Consult and Serve until the readings are in. Readings taken at the queue, at the fee counter's triage or at a nursing station all count.

Optional leaves vitals to the nurse's judgement; off hides the vitals step on the queue for clinics that do not use it. Whatever is recorded flows into the patient's chart for the consulting doctor.

Walk-ins, appointments and reserved places

Choose walk-ins only, appointments only or both. Under walk-ins only, booking is refused and the Appointments screen points staff to the queue. Under appointments only, the desk will not issue a token without a booking, and a booked patient who pays at the fee counter is marked arrived and given their token.

When both run together, a number of places can be kept for walk-ins. They come off the doctor's scheduled maximum for bookings, so the booking desk is told plainly when the remaining places are held back for patients who walk in on the day. Booked patients arriving on the day are covered on the appointment scheduling page.

Daily caps and cut-off times

Each OPD clinic can have a daily limit, checked first, and each doctor's schedule its own maximum tokens. The hospital decides whether the limit counts bookings only — so walk-ins are never turned away — or every patient, including walk-in and fee-counter tokens. Once a clinic is full, the next token is refused with a message that names the clinic and its daily number.

A token cut-off time stops new walk-in tokens after, say, 12:00, with a message telling the desk that only booked patients and urgent cases can be given a token. The cap and the clock never refuse a booked patient arriving, an urgent token, or a patient paying against a token they already hold.

Separate women's and men's queues

Switch on separate queues and the desk and fee counter place each patient in the women's or men's queue from their registration. Each queue numbers on its own — a token reads, for example, CARD-F001 or CARD-M001 — and it combines with per-doctor numbering.

On the queue board each clinic splits into a Women lane and a Men lane. Tokens issued before the switch was turned on stay together in their own lane, so nothing is lost mid-morning.

Call next, no-show, cancel with refund

Call next on the doctor's My Day takes the doctor's own waiting patients first — urgent, then by number — and then the clinic's tokens that name no doctor. Those clinic tokens appear on every doctor's list in that clinic, marked as clinic tokens, until one doctor opens it; it then becomes theirs and leaves colleagues' lists. Only a doctor who sits in that clinic can take one.

No-show skips a waiting or called token and marks its appointment as a no-show in one step. Cancel asks for a reason and, when the hospital has refunds switched on, voids the token's fee bill and refunds it from the cashier's open shift — or leaves the token untouched if the refund cannot go through. A linked appointment is cancelled with it.

Waiting-room display — token numbers only, never patient names

Each OPD clinic gets its own wall-screen page, opened on any screen from a link that needs no login. For each doctor's room it shows the token now being seen and the next four, urgent first, plus the clinic's any-doctor line. It carries token numbers and doctors' names only — never a patient's name or MRN — and refreshes every five seconds. A room flashes when its token changes, and a network blip keeps the last board on screen while it reconnects.

The display can be switched to screen, SMS or both. With SMS on, calling a token — from the desk or from the doctor's Call next — sends the patient a message through the hospital's own notification rules and templates, and a messaging fault never holds up the call. A new display link can be issued at any time, which retires the old one.

Internal referrals

When a doctor refers a patient to another clinic in the hospital, the queue needs to know whether that is a new visit and whether it is charged. EloHIMS makes it one of three rules. The Referrals screen tells staff when a fee is due, and the board shows Collect fee on a charged referral token.

If the patient already holds an open token in the receiving clinic, it is reused rather than duplicated.