Your head is aching and your legs are too. You limp over to the reception of the hospital and register your name. You're given directions to the department, a walk straight up, a turn to the right, two floors up the elevator, turn right again, and it's among the 13 rooms lining the hallway. Your head is now throbbing but you finally manage to hobble all the way there and take a place in the queue. You have a seat and wait with other patients. Only 182 people more to go.
Hospital app. photo courtesy of YMMY
That was, fortunately, just a nightmare, a flashback to the previous visits you made to public hospitals. Now the dreadful scenario becomes just a memory of the past for 200 public hospitals, thanks to QueQ, a queue-management mobile application.
QueQ allows users to download and simply book queues from anywhere two hours in advance, or scan the QR code located in front of participating restaurants, banks or services. With the app, users no longer have to make an early visit or physically wait in front of stores to make a reservation in fear of missing their place in a queue, allowing them the free time for other tasks.
A start-up by Rungsun Promprasith, CEO of app-development company YMMY, QueQ has saved patients countless boring hours of waiting in line and enabled users to spend their time productively while still in a queue. With the help of bank-system software developer Tanakorn Kalayanimit, the app began rapidly spreading across major chain restaurants like Bar.B.Q Plaza, Bonchon Chicken, Oishi and Shabushi, as well as banks and the public sector in Thailand. For the healthcare provider segment, the application is now being implemented at Rajavithi Hospital.
"Before the app came out, most of us were probably wondering, 'Why do we have to stand in line?'," Rungsun said.
Also on the team is Tanakorn's daughter, Prairwa. Currently in her last year of secondary school, Prairwa has introduced to the two adults a completely different target market. Originally a masculine-themed app, QueQ has taken on a younger, sweeter look after the girl gave her father some suggestions.
"People our age would always look to humans to solve problems, whereas the younger generation would look instantly to technology," Tanakorn said.
The three are working to develop an alarm wristband for emergency calls, another start-up model using technology to solve the common problems of daily life.
QueQ is available for download on the App Store and Google Play.
