Imagine going to a hospital emergency room and being seen by a doctor in less time than it typically takes. That’s one of the promising outcomes of the latest research by Hummy Song , a Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions. Her work examines the management of health care settings with the goal of improving the experience for both physicians and patients. She spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about the real-world implications of her study, “ The Diseconomies of Queue Pooling: An Empirical Investigation of Emergency Department Length of Stay .” The paper was co-authored by Anita L. Tucker of Brandeis University and Karen L. Murrell of Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Knowledge at Wharton: Can you give us a summary of this research? Hummy Song: My work is in health care operations, and I’m focusing on how we can design systems and processes that will enable physicians to work more productively.…