Patient anxiety in emergency departments is driven by uncertainty, not waiting time. Discover how real-time communication tools like Vic improve experience, reduce aggression, and support clinician wellbeing.
Walk into any emergency department and the atmosphere tells its own story. People waiting in pain. Parents worrying about their children. Relatives seeking updates. Clinicians moving quickly between patients, often without a moment to pause.
For patients, the waiting room is the place where anxiety grows fastest, not because of the wait itself, but because of the uncertainty surrounding it. In fact, psychological research consistently shows that people tolerate long waits far better when they understand what’s happening, why they’re waiting, and what will happen next.
Yet in most UTCs, this clarity is exactly what’s missing.
The Psychology of Waiting
Waiting is not just a logistical experience, it’s a deeply emotional one. Studies in behavioural science show that:
- Unexplained waits feel longer than explained waits
- Anxiety amplifies the perception of time
- Lack of communication reduces trust in the system
- Uncertainty drives people to repeatedly seek reassurance
For patients in the UTC, the unknown creates a sense of vulnerability: Has anyone looked at my x-ray? Am I about to be forgotten? Is this normal?
When hundreds of patients cycle through a department each day, these feelings accumulate into frustration, aggression, and rising tensions, all of which directly impact staff wellbeing and safety.
How UTC’s Communicate Today
While clinical systems in the NHS have rapidly digitised over the last decade, patient-facing communication has barely changed. Most EDs still rely on:
- Static signage
- Verbal triage information
- Occasional updates when staff have time
- Ad hoc reassurance during corridor conversations
The result is a communication gap: patients want clarity and updates; staff want to focus on clinical tasks without constant interruption. Without a structured way to keep patients informed, non-urgent questions inevitably spill over into clinician time — fuelling the cycle of interruptions, anxiety, and inefficiency.
How Real-Time Digital Messaging Changes the Experience
This is where digital communication tools like Vic offer a practical, human-centred solution.
Victor enables clinicians to send real-time updates to patients via WhatsApp — a familiar, accessible platform almost everyone already uses. Instead of approaching a staff member in person or waiting for sporadic updates, patients receive timely information directly on their phone.
Through Vic, clinicians can:
- Explain expected wait times
- Update patients when tests are ordered or completed
- Clarify what will happen next in their pathway
- Provide reassurance (“Your results are being reviewed”)
- Share health information or self-care guidance
- Redirect appropriate patients to alternative services
What makes this approach powerful is its simplicity: no apps to download, no accounts to set up. The communication meets the patient where they already are.
The Human Impact: Calmer Rooms, Clearer Expectations
When patients understand their journey, their anxiety drops and so does the emotional temperature in the waiting room.
Hospitals that have trialled real-time patient messaging consistently report:
- Reduced aggression and frustration
- Fewer repeated questions to nurses and reception
- Higher Friends and Family Test scores
- Greater sense of trust and fairness
- Reduced need for security support during peak pressures
For staff, the difference is immediately noticeable. A calmer waiting room means fewer confrontations, fewer interruptions, and a safer working environment. This isn’t just a patient experience intervention, it’s a staff wellbeing intervention too.
Why Communication Is a Core Part of Safe Care
In the NHS, communication is often seen as a “soft” part of the patient journey. In reality, it is one of the strongest determinants of safety, flow, and experience.
Clear communication reduces risk, improves adherence, and builds rapport. In urgent and emergency care where uncertainty is unavoidable — providing clarity quickly becomes a form of care in itself.
Digital messaging tools like Vic don’t replace clinical conversations. They ensure those conversations happen at the right moments, with the right people, in a calmer environment.
By reducing the anxiety inherent in waiting, UTC’zs can improve both patient experience and operational efficiency, one message at a time.
Vic 