Managing the queue
Call patients in order, mark no-shows, prioritise emergencies, and clear the queue at end of day.
Overview
The queue is the live waiting room. It shows who's checked in, how long they've waited, and who's next for each dentist. Front-desk staff use it to call patients into rooms; dentists use it to see what's coming.
Prerequisites
- Any clinical or front-desk role
- One or more patients checked in today
Steps
Open the queue. Top nav → Queue. The view shows columns per dentist with stacked cards for waiting patients, ordered by check-in time.
Read the cards. Each card shows patient name, scheduled appointment time, check-in time, wait time so far (live-updating), and a status pill.
Call a patient. Click Call patient on the next card in a dentist's queue. The patient gets a notification (via the patient portal app, if installed) and the card moves to the top with status CALLED. Use the clinic's standard physical paging too — software notification supplements, not replaces.
Reorder when needed. Drag a card up or down to change the call order. Use this when a quick procedure can fit before a long one or when prioritising an emergency.
Add an emergency walk-in. From the patient list (or create new), click Quick check-in in the queue header. The patient appears at the top of the chosen dentist's column with a red urgent badge.
Mark no-show. If a patient called doesn't appear within the clinic's grace period (default 15 min), click More actions → Mark no-show on their card. Status moves to NO_SHOW; they leave the queue.
Refresh the queue. Live updates run via live connection. If the connection drops, the Refresh button at the top fetches the latest server state.
Clear the queue at end of day. Owner/Admin only: More actions → Clear queue removes any leftover entries (typically no-shows that weren't manually marked). Each cleared entry creates an audit log entry.
Expected outcome
- The queue accurately reflects who's waiting and how long
- Real-time updates propagate within seconds of a call/no-show/clear
- The patient's portal app shows their place in the queue
- Reports for utilization and average wait time pick up the data
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Queue is empty despite check-ins | Wrong location selected | Switch the location filter |
| Drag-and-drop doesn't reorder | Browser drag handlers blocked | Use More actions → Move up/down |
| "Call patient" button doesn't trigger their app | Patient hasn't enabled queue notifications in their portal | Patient toggles in their portal Settings |
| Wait times look wrong | Check-in time wasn't recorded properly | Hover the wait time for the source check-in timestamp |
| Clear button missing | You're not Owner or Admin | Ask one of them |