WaitWell: Lakewood Covenant Community Health Centre’s “wait-less waiting room”
Making your visit easier with digital queue management
Covenant is taking an innovative approach to making your visit to the Lakewood Covenant Community Health Centre as efficient and stress-free as possible. That's why, with the support of the Covenant Foundation, we've introduced WaitWell, a digital queue management system designed to help you optimize your time while waiting for your appointment.
What is WaitWell?
WaitWell is a digital queuing system that turns the traditional waiting room experience on its head. Instead of spending time in a crowded waiting room wondering when your name will be called, WaitWell allows you to check in digitally from anywhere, monitor your place in line using your device and move freely throughout the building while you wait.
"By giving patients the option to check into their appointment from home or when they arrive at Lakewood, we’re making waiting easy," says Daina Sparling, corporate services manager, Innovation, at Covenant Health. "Being able to track their place in line with their device or watch their number move up the queue on a screen reduces anxiety. Now, instead of worrying that they’ve missed their name being called, visitors can grab a coffee, do an errand or stop in to see one of our wellness partners with confidence.”
How WaitWell Works
WaitWell is simple and accessible. Here's how it works.
Check in to your appointment
You have several convenient options for checking in:
From home: Before leaving for an appointment, you can check in by scanning the QR code on your appointment card or clicking “Check In” on the Community Health Centre website.
At the Community Health Centre: Use your device to scan the QR code posted at all entrances, clinic areas and the information desk.
With volunteer assistance: Our amazing volunteers are armed with tablets and waiting at the main doors if you need a little extra help checking in.
At clinics: If you prefer not to use your device, clinic staff can check you into WaitWell when you arrive.
Monitor your place and stay informed
Once you've checked in, you'll receive an ID number on your phone and via email. This allows you to:
monitor your real-time position in the digital queue using your device
track your progress in line on the waiting room screens
receive automatic 10-minute appointment reminders asking you to bring your identification to the clinic desk to verify your identity
chat with friendly clinic staff using the WaitWell portal on your device
receive text messages from clinic staff with important updates or information about your appointment
Why WaitWell?
Covenant Community Health Centres are intended to be holistic, integrated healthcare service facilities. As our flagship Community Health Centre, Lakewood Covenant Community Health Centre has been designed to make accessing health care seamless, welcoming and easy, including using WaitWell.
WaitWell offers patients many benefits:
Privacy: WaitWell has been rigorously tested to ensure that patient information is protected. It anonymizes patients by using ID numbers, making it impossible for anyone to know who is waiting in line, and does not store any personal information for future use.
Reduced anxiety: Real-time communication with clinic staff helps keep you informed and empowered. There’s no more worrying that you'll miss your turn or wondering how much longer you'll have to wait.
Improved comfort: Fewer people in waiting rooms means a less crowded, more comfortable environment.
Accessibility: Providing multiple ways to check in and real people ready to help patients when they arrive ensures that everybody can take advantage of WaitWell.
Equity: WaitWell is available for use in English, French, Spanish, Ukrainian, Somali, Punjabi and Arabic by toggling the flag in the top right corner. Users will receive text and email messages in their language of choice.
Covenant’s commitment to innovation
In 2024, a generous grant from the Covenant Foundation allowed WaitWell to become a reality. This investment reflects Covenant’s ongoing commitment to providing care designed to empower patients and caregivers and to advancing health equity. The Innovation portfolio extends its deepest gratitude for the foundation’s ongoing support.
“Stewardship is one of my core values,” says Daina. “Ensuring that every cent we receive is being used judiciously, in ways that make a real difference for our patients and residents, is my priority. I’m incredibly humbled by the opportunity to support the Innovation portfolio at Covenant through the Lakewood Covenant Community Health Centre digital innovation projects, and I look forward to the bright future of innovation at our other sites."
Your feedback matters
As we continue to refine WaitWell, we look to you for invaluable feedback. After a clinic appointment, you will receive an invitation to complete a patient experience survey that includes questions about how Covenant’s digital innovation projects impacted your visit.
If you have ideas about how to improve WaitWell during your visit, feel free to share them at the information desk, with a clinic or with a volunteer to be included in our feedback logs.
"We're committed to continuously improving patient outcomes and experience,” says Daina. “It’s important to give people the ability to provide feedback and equally as important to use that feedback and iterate positive change.”
A blueprint for the future
Located at 7319 29 Ave NW, the Lakewood Covenant Community Health Centre embodies the future of community-based health care, bringing together primary and outpatient care, diagnostic imaging, laboratory services and wellness resources under one roof. We are excited to see how WaitWell will support your journey at our facility.