How Urgent Care Clinics Show Live Wait Times on Waiting Room Screens

The first thing a patient wants to know when they walk into an urgent care clinic is how long they'll be there. If the answer isn't on a screen, they ask the front desk, and they keep asking every twenty minutes. A waiting room TV that shows the live wait time answers that question for everyone at once. The same screen can also tell patients about services they didn't know you offered.

Here's how one multi-location urgent care operator set this up, and how to do the same in your clinics.

Why show wait times in an urgent care waiting room?

Because the wait is the experience. Solv, the patient booking platform, says more than half of patients would go to a different clinic for a shorter wait (Solv). Patients who can see where things stand are less likely to walk out, and your front desk spends less time fielding the same question.

There's a catch: the number has to be right. When the U.S. Military Health System piloted wait-time displays in its urgent care clinics, 69% of surveyed patients noticed the posted wait time, but only 19% strongly agreed it was accurate (Health.mil). A number that someone types in by hand, or that lags the real queue, does more harm than no number at all. The fix is to pull the wait time straight from the system that runs your queue.

How one urgent care operator does it

A multi-location urgent care franchise we work with already uses Solv for online booking, check-in and the patient queue. Solv knows who has checked in and roughly how long each patient will wait. The clinic didn't need a second system to calculate wait times. It needed a way to put Solv's live information on the lobby TV.

Solv provides a display link for each clinic: a web page that shows the current wait. The clinic added that link to Display NOW as a web app, which keeps the page live on the screen, so when the queue changes in Solv, the screen changes too. The screen shows wait times, not patient names, and nobody at the front desk touches the TV during the day.

The other half of the setup is what makes it pay for itself.

One screen, two jobs: wait times and services

Display NOW's layouts let you split a screen into zones that play different content at the same time. The urgent care setup uses two:

• Wait-time zone: the live wait time from Solv's display link, through the web app. Nobody updates it. It updates itself from the queue.
• Main zone: a playlist of slides about the clinic's services, promotions and health reminders. Marketing or the clinic manager updates it a few times a year.

Patients glance up to check the wait, and every time they do, they see something else too. That's the revenue side. Most urgent care patients come in for one problem and don't know what else the clinic handles.

What services should the screen promote?

Pick services patients can book on their next visit, or add on today. Common ones for urgent care:

• Physicals: sports, school, camp and DOT physicals, timed to back-to-school and spring sports seasons.
• Vaccines: flu shots in the fall, plus travel and routine vaccines.
• Testing: lab work, STD testing, drug screening and COVID, flu and strep tests.
• On-site imaging: if you have X-ray, say so. Many patients assume they'll be sent elsewhere.
• Occupational medicine: employer services such as pre-employment screening and work injury care. The patient in the chair may be the person who chooses a clinic for their company.
• Booking online: a QR code that takes patients to your online check-in, so their next visit starts with a shorter wait.

Use scheduling to keep it seasonal. Flu shot slides can run September through December and turn themselves off. Sports physicals can come back every July. In Display NOW you set the dates once and the playlist changes on its own.

What shouldn't go on a waiting room screen?

Keep patient information off the screen unless your compliance team has signed off on it. A wait time or a queue position doesn't identify anyone. Full names, reasons for visit and anything clinical should stay on the front desk's screen, not the lobby's.

Also skip anything that competes with the wait time for attention. If the services playlist is all video with sound, patients will tune out the whole screen. Short, silent slides with one message each work best, eight to ten seconds per slide.

How do you set this up?

1. Get the display link from your queue system. If you use Solv, ask for the display link for each clinic. Other check-in platforms may offer a similar web view of the wait.
2. Add it to Display NOW as a web app. Paste the link and check that it shows wait times, not names, and reads well at TV size.
3. Choose a layout. Put the wait time in a zone large enough to read from the back row, and the services playlist in the main zone.
4. Build five to eight service slides. Templates or Canva work well, and you can reuse the same slides in every location.
5. Schedule the seasonal slides. Set start and end dates so nobody has to remember to swap them.
6. Check it remotely. Remote preview shows what each lobby screen is playing, so one person can manage every location.

For screens that need to run all day, every day, the Display NOW Edge Player is included with Business Edge and comes with remote device support. See more ideas on our healthcare digital signage page, or compare plans and try it free for 14 days.

FAQs about urgent care wait time screens

Do I need a special system to show wait times on a TV?

Not if you already use a check-in and queue platform. If it offers a live web view of the wait, Display NOW can show it as a web app. If it doesn't, you can still post estimated waits by hand, but keep them current. An out-of-date number frustrates patients more than no number.

Can each location show its own wait time?

Yes. Each clinic's screens use that clinic's own display link, so every location shows its own wait while sharing the same services playlist.

Will showing wait times make patients leave?

Some patients may choose to come back later, and that's often fine for both of you. Patients who stay know what to expect, and patients who can see the queue moving are less likely to walk out partway through.

Can the screen show patient names?

Keep names off unless your compliance team has approved it. Wait times, queue positions or ticket numbers give patients what they need without putting anyone's information on a public screen.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for legal advice. Patient privacy rules, including HIPAA and state privacy laws, apply differently depending on your clinic, your systems and what you put on a screen. Confirm with your compliance officer or a qualified attorney before showing any patient information on a public display.