Ocean automatically calculates wait times on a nightly basis for each Health Service Offering in your Directory Listing(s). Ocean uses eligible eReferrals sent over the past six months for the calculations.
Ocean Site Admins can view and manage wait times for their Health Service Offerings within the Ocean Portal. This includes the ability to self-report additional wait time information for each Health Service Offering, and choose between displaying the calculated or self-reported wait time in the Ocean Healthmap search results.
Prerequisites
- To access the 'Offering Wait Time Management' section of your Directory Listing settings, the 'Will this listing accept eRequests?' setting must be set to 'Yes' within the Listing Information tab.
- After logging in to the Ocean Portal, navigate to the 'Admin Settings' page, and select 'Directory Listings'.
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- If your Ocean Site has multiple Directory Listings, select the relevant one using the dropdown menu at the top of the page.
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- Open the 'Health Service Offerings' tab and select the Health Service Offering from your Directory Listing that you would like to manage wait times for.
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After selecting a Health Service Offering, respective wait time information will appear under the 'Offering Wait Time Management' section.
You can toggle between viewing wait 1 or wait 2 information by using the 'Wait 1' and 'Wait 2' tabs.
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Setting a Self-Reported Wait Time
- This setting allows you to optionally set a Self-Reported wait time to accompany your calculated wait time using the dropdown menu. Self-Reported wait times should be kept current and reviewed regularly.
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- When a Self-Reported wait time is specified, the 'Healthmap search results' toggle is automatically adjusted to display the newly-specified Self-reported wait time value.
- In the image above, we can see that the Health Service Offering has been configured to display the Self-Reported wait time of 4 days. When viewing search results for the 'General Surgery' health service on the Ocean Healthmap, the value of 4 days is displayed accordingly.
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- Both the Self-Reported and calculated wait times are visible within the Health Service Offering details in your Directory Listing on the Ocean Healthmap.
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- If a Self-Reported Wait Time has not been provided, or the calculated wait time sample size is too small, it will appear as 'Unspecified'.
Healthmap search results
This setting allows you to view and control the wait time value displayed to users in the Ocean Healthmap search results.
- By selecting either 'Use self-reported wait time' or 'Use calculated wait time', you can choose to display either the self-reported wait time (configured above) or the calculated wait time in the Ocean Healthmap search results.
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- In the image above, we can see that the Health Service Offering has been configured to display the calculated wait time of 16 days. When viewing search results for the 'General Surgery' health service on the Ocean Healthmap, the value of 16 days is displayed accordingly.
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Self-Report Your Wait Time
Advanced Notes regarding Self-Reported Wait Times
- If you configure a Self-Reported wait time to be displayed in the Ocean Healthmap search results (instead of the calculated wait time), please note that this only takes effect for 6 months. After 6 months, the wait time displayed in the Ocean Healthmap search results will automatically revert to the calculated wait time*.
- *If your Directory Listing has been configured to automatically redirect incoming referrals to a Central Intake, and the Central Intake has the 'Wait Time Management' functionality enabled, Ocean will automatically revert to displaying a blank wait time in the Ocean Healthmap search results after 6 months.
- *If your Directory Listing has been configured to use Ocean's HL7 FHIR API integration, but the integrated system does not send the necessary wait time extension data back to Ocean, Ocean will automatically revert to displaying a blank wait time in the Ocean Healthmap search results after 6 months.
- If you configure your Self-Reported wait time as 'Unknown', Ocean will display a blank wait time in the Ocean Healthmap search results and your calculated wait time will appear as 'Unknown' within the Health Service Offering details in your Directory Listing. After 6 months, the wait time displayed in the Ocean Healthmap search results will automatically revert to the calculated wait time*.
- You can configure your Self-Reported wait time back to it's default state of 'Unspecified' by selecting the 'Unspecified' option in the dropdown menu.
Public Comments
- You can optionally include a public comment regarding your wait time information to provide additional context to users on the Ocean Healthmap regarding your wait times.
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- Public comments are visible within the Health Service Offering details in your Directory Listing on the Ocean Healthmap, as well as when your computer's cursor is hovering on the wait time value in the search results.
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Viewing Calculated Wait Time Statistics
- To view the calculated wait time statistics for your selected Health Service Offering and wait time, click the 'View statistics'/'Hide statistics' button above the calculated wait time value.
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Note: If your Directory Listing has been configured to route referrals to a Central Intake that manages wait times, you are not able to view your wait time statistics or the date that wait times were last calculated.