Emergency Department Wait Times

Background

Emergency Department Wait Times is a website that helps patients find the right urgent care quickly. The website was originally built in 2012 and was in need of an update for the modern web.

Discovery

During the initial discovery phase, we identified several issues with the existing website:

Lack of CMS

Content changes required manual edits to static HTML files, increasing turn-around time and risk of errors during updates.

Non-responsive design

The site performed poorly on mobile devices, where most users were likely accessing it during emergencies.

Performance bottlenecks

The site load times were very slow at almost 10 seconds, leading to high bounce rates.

Original Website

Objectives

1. Modernize the user experience
2. Improve the performance of the website
3. Make it easier to maintain and update the website’s content

Process

To achieve these objectives, I selected a modern tech stack that balances performance, maintainability, and scalability.

Choosing Next.js

Next.js was chosen for its widespread adoption and server-side rendering (SSR) capabilities, which significantly improve performance and SEO.

Implementing Keystone CMS

Keystone CMS provided a flexible, headless content management system that empowered content administrators to update hospital details and other critical information without requiring developer intervention.

Optimizing with Turborepo

To streamline development, I used Turborepo to manage the monorepo efficiently. This allowed for faster builds and deployments, reducing friction in ongoing development and updates.

Improving UI/UX with Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS allowed for rapid UI development while maintaining a clean and consistent design. It enabled me to create a fully responsive interface that adapts seamlessly across all devices.

Hosting on Azure

The project was deployed on Azure to leverage its scalable infrastructure, ensuring the site remains performant even during traffic spikes.

Results

Faster load times

Page load time improved by 70%, ensuring that even during peak traffic, patients can access information quickly.

Easier content management

Content administrators can now update content in minutes using the CMS, rather than needing developer intervention.

Responsive design

The mobile-friendly interface now accounts for almost 80% of all traffic.