scholarly journals Factors Associated With Patient Waiting Time at a Medical Outpatient Clinic: A Case Study of University of Nairobi Health Services

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 915-918
Author(s):  
Rebecca Bisanju Wafula (BSCN, MSCHSM) ◽  
Dr. Richard Ayah (MBCHB, MSC, PHD)
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Waiting Time ◽  
Outpatient Clinic ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Waiting Times ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Patient Waiting Time ◽  
Patient Waiting

Background: Long waiting time in outpatient clinics is a constant challenge for patients and the health care providers. Prolonged waiting times are associated with poor adherence to treatment, missed appointment and failure or delay in initiation of treatment and is a major factor towards the perception of the patient towards the care received. Objective: To determine the waiting time and associated factors among out patients attending staff clinic at University of Nairobi health services. Method: A cross-sectional study design was used and data collected from 384 ambulatory patients over a period of four weeks using an interviewer administered pretested structured exit questionnaire with a time-tracking section. Simple random sampling was used to select respondents in a walk- in outpatient clinic set up. Data was cleaned and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 20. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), and cross tabulation was used to establish associations between the independent variable and dependent variables. Results: In total 384 patients were tracked and interviewed. The average patient waiting time was 55.3mins.Most respondents (52%) suggested that improving availability of staff at their stations would help to reduce patient waiting time. In this study, gender (P=0.005) and availability of doctors (p=0.000) were found to affect patient waiting time with women waiting longer than the male patients. Conclusion: Majority of the patients spent about an hour at the facility to be served. Inadequate number of health workers was the main cause of long waiting time.

scholarly journals The Use of Information Technology to Short the Waiting Time for Examination of Road Care Patients at RSU Islam Klaten

2021 ◽  
Vol 04 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Owin Bambang Wijanarko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Patient Satisfaction ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Waiting Time ◽  
Waiting Times ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Outpatient Services ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Patient Waiting Time ◽  
Patient Waiting

Background: Outpatient services are a reflection of hospital services.As a form of health service facility that organizes health efforts, hospitals often experience difficulties in managing information for both internal and external needs. One form of application is through service systems by utilizing information technology through the use of computer-based on information systems.The Lean Hospital concept, which has been successfully implemented in several hospitals, is expected to eliminate waste and add value added activity which will ultimately increase patient satisfaction. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to calculate patient waiting time with the application of information technology in the outpatient polyclinic of RSU Islam Klaten. Research methods: This type of research uses a descriptive analytic method. This research meth-od used a cross sectional approach. The sample in this study amounted to 81 respondents with the sampling technique using purposive sampling. The analysis in research using the t-test. The re-search instruments used included literature studies, interviews and direct observation of medical record officers, nurses of polyclinic nurses, registration departments, and patients at RSU Islam Klaten. Result: There is a significant relationship between waiting time and patient satisfaction p = 0.001. Patients with long waiting times were more dissatisfied (60.0%), while fast waiting times were more very satisfied (73.9%). Conclusion: The success of health services is seen from the patient's waiting time and patient satisfaction. Waiting time is the time used by patients to get health services from the registration point to getting in the doctor's examination room. Overall information technology shortens patient waiting time in parts of registration-polyclinic and Pharmacy.

scholarly journals Patient waiting time in the outpatient clinic at a central surgical hospital of Vietnam: Implications for resource allocation

F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 454
Author(s):  
Tho Dinh Tran ◽  
Uy Van Nguyen ◽  
Vuong Minh Nong ◽  
Bach Xuan Tran
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Waiting Time ◽  
Outpatient Clinic ◽  
Quality Of Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Patient Waiting Time ◽  
Administrative Procedures ◽  
Patient Waiting

Background: Patient waiting time is considered as a crucial parameter in the assessment of healthcare quality and patients’ satisfaction towards healthcare services. Data concerning this has remained limited in Vietnam. Thus, this study aims to assess patient waiting time in the outpatient clinic in Viet Duc Hospital (Hanoi, Vietnam) in order to enable stakeholders to inform evidence-based interventions to improve the quality of healthcare services. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2014 to June 2015 in the outpatient clinic at Viet Duc Hospital. Waiting time stratified by years (2014 and 2015), months of the year, weekdays, and hours of the day were extracted from Hospital Management software and carefully calculated. Stata 12.0 was employed to analyze data, including the average time (M± SD), frequencies and percentage (%). Results: There was a total of 137,881 patients involved in the study. The average waiting time from registration to preliminary diagnosis in 2014 was 50.41 minutes, and in 2015 was 42.05 minutes. A longer waiting time was recorded in the morning and in those having health insurance. Conclusions: Our results provided evidence that despite the decrease of waiting time from 2014 to 2015, waiting time was much higher among patients having health insurance compared to their counterparts. The findings suggest that human resources promotion and distribution should be emphasized in outpatient clinics and health insurance-related administrative procedures should be simplified.

scholarly journals Patient waiting time in the outpatient clinic at a central surgical hospital of Vietnam: Implications for resource allocation

F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 454
Author(s):  
Tho Dinh Tran ◽  
Uy Van Nguyen ◽  
Vuong Minh Nong ◽  
Bach Xuan Tran
Keyword(s):  
Waiting Time ◽  
Outpatient Clinic ◽  
Quality Of Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Patient Waiting Time ◽  
Administrative Procedures ◽  
Insured Patients ◽  
Patient Waiting

Background: Patient waiting time is considered as a crucial parameter in the assessment of healthcare quality and patients’ satisfaction towards healthcare services. Data concerning this has remained limited in Vietnam. Thus, this study aims to assess patient waiting time in the outpatient clinic in Viet Duc Hospital (Hanoi, Vietnam) in order to enable stakeholders to inform evidence-based interventions to improve the quality of healthcare services. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2014 to June 2015 in the outpatient clinic at Viet Duc Hospital. Waiting time stratified by years (2014 and 2015), months of the year, weekdays, and hours of the day were extracted from Hospital Management software and carefully calculated. Stata 12.0 was employed to analyze data, including the average time (M± SD), frequencies and percentage (%). Results: There was a total of 137,881 patients involved in the study. The average waiting time from registration to preliminary diagnosis in 2014 was 50.41 minutes, and in 2015 was 42.05 minutes. A longer waiting time was recorded in the morning and in those having health insurance. Conclusions: Our study highlights the essential need for human resource promotion to reduce patient waiting time. Also, attention should be paid to the simplification of administrative procedures in order to reduce waiting time among insured patients.

scholarly journals Patient waiting time in the outpatient clinic at a central surgical hospital of Vietnam: Implications for resource allocation

F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tho Dinh Tran ◽  
Uy Van Nguyen ◽  
Vuong Minh Nong ◽  
Bach Xuan Tran
Keyword(s):  
Waiting Time ◽  
Outpatient Clinic ◽  
Quality Of Healthcare ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Patient Waiting Time ◽  
Administrative Procedures ◽  
Insured Patients ◽  
Patient Waiting

Background: Patient waiting time is considered as a crucial parameter in the assessment of healthcare quality and patients’ satisfaction towards healthcare services. Data concerning this has remained limited in Vietnam. Thus, this study aims to assess patient waiting time in the outpatient clinic in Viet Duc Hospital (Hanoi, Vietnam) in order to enable stakeholders to inform evidence-based interventions to improve the quality of healthcare services. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2014 to June 2015 in the outpatient clinic at Viet Duc Hospital. Waiting time stratified by years (2014 and 2015), months of the year, weekdays, and hours of the day were extracted from Hospital Management software and carefully calculated. Stata 12.0 was employed to analyze data, including the average time (M± SD), frequencies and percentage (%). Results: There was a total of 137,881 patients involved in the study. The average waiting time from registration to preliminary diagnosis in 2014 was 50.41 minutes, and in 2015 was 42.05 minutes. A longer waiting time was recorded in the morning and in those having health insurance. Conclusions: Our study highlights the essential need for human resource promotion to reduce patient waiting time. Also, attention should be paid to the simplification of administrative procedures in order to reduce waiting time among insured patients.

scholarly journals Integral patient scheduling in outpatient clinics under demand uncertainty to minimize patient waiting times

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 435-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jyoti R Munavalli ◽  
Shyam Vasudeva Rao ◽  
Aravind Srinivasan ◽  
GG van Merode
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Waiting Time ◽  
Outpatient Clinic ◽  
Demand Uncertainty ◽  
Waiting Times ◽  
Optimal Path ◽  
Outpatient Clinics ◽  
Patient Scheduling ◽  
Patient Waiting Time ◽  
Patient Waiting

This study addressed the problem of scheduling walk-in patients in real time. Outpatient clinics encounter uncertainty in patient demand. In addition, the disparate departments are locally (department-centric) organized, leading to prolonged waiting times for patients. The proposed integral patient scheduling model incorporates the status and information of all departments in the outpatient clinic along with all possible pathways to direct patients, on their arrival, to the optimal path. The developed hybrid ant agent algorithm identifies the optimal path to reduce the patient waiting time and cycle time (time from registration to exit). An outpatient clinic in Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, has a huge volume of walk-in patients and was selected for this study. The simulation study was performed for diverse scenarios followed by implementation study. The results indicate that integral patient scheduling reduced waiting time significantly. The path optimization in real time makes scheduling effective and efficient as it captures the changes in the outpatient clinic instantly.

Using lean techniques and discrete-event simulation for performance improvement in an outpatient clinic

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kudret Demirli ◽  
Abdulqader Al Kaf ◽  
Mecit Can Emre Simsekler ◽  
Raja Jayaraman ◽  
Mumtaz Jamshed Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Discrete Event Simulation ◽  
Waiting Time ◽  
Outpatient Clinic ◽  
Waiting Times ◽  
Discrete Event ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Event Simulation ◽  
Patient Waiting Time ◽  
Patient Waiting

Purpose Increased demand and the pressure to reduce health-care costs have led to longer waiting time for patients to make appointments and during the day of hospital visits. The purpose of this study is to identify opportunities to reduce waiting time using lean techniques and discrete-event simulation (DES). Design/methodology/approach A five-step procedure is proposed to facilitate the effective utilization of lean and DES to improve the performance of the Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Outpatient Clinic at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. While lean techniques were applied to reduce the potential sources of waste by aligning processes, a DES model was developed to validate the proposed solutions and plan patient arrivals under dynamic conditions and different scenarios. Findings Aligning processes resulted in an efficient patient flow reducing both waiting times. DES played a complementary role in verifying lean solutions under dynamic conditions, helping to plan the patient arrivals and striking a balance between the waiting times. The proposed solutions offered flexibility to improve the clinic capacity from the current 176 patients up to 479 (without violating the 30 min waiting time policy) or to reduce the patient waiting time during the visit from the current 33 min to 4.5 min (without violating the capacity goal of 333 patients). Research limitations/implications Proposing and validating lean solutions require reliable data to be collected from the clinic and such a process could be laborious as data collection require patient and resource tracing without interfering with the regular functions of the clinic. Practical implications The work enables health-care managers to conveniently conduct a trade-off analysis and choose a suitable inter-arrival time – for every physician – that would satisfy their objectives between resource utilization (clinic capacity) and average patient waiting time. Social implications Successful implementation of lean requires a supportive and cooperative culture from all stakeholders involved. Originality/value This study presents an original and detailed application of lean techniques with DES to reduce patient waiting times. The adopted approach in this study could be generalized to other health-care settings with similar objectives.

scholarly journals Relationship Length of Time Patient Waiting In Poly Interne With Patient Satisfaction In Dr. Achmad Mochtar Bukittinggi Year 2017

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Tafdiel Tafdiel ◽  
Rinawati Kasrin
Keyword(s):  
Patient Satisfaction ◽  
Waiting Time ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Wait Time ◽  
Bivariate Analysis ◽  
P Value ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Relationship Length ◽  
Patient Waiting Time ◽  
Patient Waiting

Waiting time is the time that patients use to get health services starting from the place of registration until entering the doctor examination room. Patient waiting time is one component that causes patient dissatisfaction, which if patient waiting time is not in accordance with the standard that has been set that is for wait time is ≤ 60 minutes it will affect the patient satisfaction. The fact shows still found the patient complained waiting time in poli interne. This study aims to determine the relationship between patient waiting time in poly interne with patient satisfaction in Bukittinggi Hospital in 2017. Type of research used is quantitative with a cross-sectional approach. The population in this study amounted to 420 patients with the number of samples obtained as much as 81 using the technique of non-probability sampling that is accidental sampling. Data were analyzed using the chi-square test. The result of the analysis is more than partially (72.8%) nonstandard waiting time, (27.2%) standard waiting time. Bivariate analysis was found (66.1%) waiting time was not according to the standard of an unsatisfied patient, and (13.6%) waiting time according to standard and patient was not satisfied. Statistical test results obtained p-value 0.0001 (p <0.05), OR = 12.350. The conclusion of this study is there is a significant relationship between patient waiting time and patient satisfaction in RSUD Dr. Achmad Muchtar Bukittinggi in 2017. It is expected that employees and health workers to maintain and improve the performance and service to patients in accordance with predetermined standards, so patients will be satisfied if their expectations are in accordance with the desired. 

scholarly journals Preferences and Perceptions of Patients Attending Emergency Departments with Low Acuity Problems in Hong Kong

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 148-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
CA Graham ◽  
WO Kwok ◽  
YL Tsang ◽  
TH Rainer
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Waiting Time ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Waiting Times ◽  
Medical Advice ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Waiting Area

Objective To explore why patients in Hong Kong seek medical advice from the emergency department (ED) and to identify the methods by which patients would prefer to be updated on the likely waiting time for medical consultation in the ED. Methods The study recruited 249 semi-urgent and non-urgent patients in the ED of Prince of Wales Hospital from 26th September 2005 to 30th September 2005 inclusive. A convenience sample of subjects aged ≥15 years old in triage categories 4 or 5 were verbally consented and interviewed by research nurses using a standardized questionnaire. Results From 1715 potential patients, 249 were recruited ad hoc (mean age 44 years [SD18]; 123 females). About 63% indicated that an acceptable ED waiting time was less than or equal to two hours, and 88% felt that having individual number cards and using a number allocation screen in the ED waiting area would be useful. Perceived reasons for attending the ED rather than other health care providers such as primary health care or the general outpatient clinic (GOPC) included: a desire for more detailed investigations (56%); a perception that more professional medical advice was given in the ED (35%); patients were under the continuing care of the hospital (19%); and patients were referred to the ED by other health care professionals (11%). Notably, 26% of participants had considered attending the GOPC prior to attending the ED. Patients educated to tertiary level expected a shorter waiting time than those educated to lesser degrees (p=0.026, Kruskal-Wallis test). Suggestions were made on how to provide a more pleasant ED environment for the wait for consultations, which included the provision of a television screen with sound in the waiting area (43%), more comfortable chairs (37%) and health care promotion programs (32%). Conclusion Patients chose ED services because they believed they would receive more detailed investigations and more professional medical advice than available alternatives. Clear notification of the likely waiting times and enhancement of comfort before consultation are considered desirable by patients. Enhanced public education about the role of the ED and making alternatives to ED care more accessible may be useful in reducing inappropriate ED attendances in Hong Kong.

Announcing Waiting Time in Emergency Departments

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Martin Lariviere ◽  
Sarang Deo
Keyword(s):  
Waiting Time ◽  
Emergency Departments ◽  
Waiting Times ◽  
Large Network ◽  
Regional Networks ◽  
Marketing Campaign ◽  
National Healthcare ◽  
Time Estimates ◽  
Patient Waiting Time ◽  
Patient Waiting

First National Healthcare (FNH) runs a large network of hospitals and has worked to systematically reduce waiting times in its emergency departments. One of FNH's regional networks has run a successful marketing campaign promoting its low ED waiting times that other regions want to emulate. The corporate quality manager must now determine whether to allow these campaigns to be rolled out and, if so, which waiting time estimates to use. Are the numbers currently being reported accurate? Is there a more accurate way of estimating patient waiting time that can be easily understood by consumers?

scholarly journals Knowledge and practices of health workers on safe disposal of sharp medical wastes in selected hospitals

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 802-808
Author(s):  
Eti Samadder ◽  
Ashees Kumar Shaha ◽  
Irtiza Ahmed Chowdhury ◽  
Sajeda Khatun ◽  
China Rani Mittra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Waste Disposal ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Medical Waste ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Safe Disposal ◽  
Correct Color ◽  
Medical Wastes

Sharp medical waste is infectious and hazardous because of their high potential diseases transmission and injury. It poses serious threats to environmental health. A cross sectional study was done to assess the level of knowledge and practices of health workers on safe disposal of sharp medical wastes. This study was done in Pirojpur Sadar Hospital, Nazirpur Upazilla Health Complex and Zia Nagar Upazilla Health Complex. Sample size was 200 Health Workers. A Semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected data were processed and analyzed with the help of SPSS (Version 20) software on the basis of different variables. The period of study was from January to December 2016. The study result shows that among 200 respondent mean age was 44.05 (±7.01) years. The designation varieties were nurses (70.0%), doctor (10.0%), Aya/ward boy (15.0%). This study found that, majority of the respondents had knowledge about the concept of medical waste and sharp medical waste. Among the respondents (90.0%) respondents knew the correct color bin to segregate sharp medical waste. Multiple responses of the respondents (80%) mentioned that they got information from Course curriculum. Knowledge of the respondents on sharp medical waste disposal (64.5%) had Good knowledge, (23%) had Fair Knowledge and (12.5%) had Poor Knowledge. Most of the respondents (47.5%) had Good practices, (33%) had Fair and (20%) had Poor practices regarding safe disposal of sharp medical waste disposal. Adequate supply of equipment’s and strict monitoring system should be established to improvement the practice of the health care providers regarding safe disposal of sharp medical waste. Training on sharp medical waste disposal will help the participants to improve their knowledge and practices. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. December 2020, 6(4): 802-808

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document