A study of determinant of long waiting period in outpatient department and recommendation on reducing waiting time in Superspeciality hospital

This is a cross sectional observational study conducted in a tertiary care Superspeciality hospital, during the study both qualitative data like factors responsible for long waiting time in OPD, its impact on patient satisfaction and quantitative data like average waiting time of the patients in outpatient department was studied.

Aim and Objectives

• To find the determinant of long waiting period in OPD
• To determine the patients satisfaction for OPD services
• To give recommendation on reducing waiting time in the out-patient department

Material and Methods: The systematic sampling technique was carried out by simple random sampling. The first patient visiting the registration counter was taken as  starting point and thereafter next  patient randomly selected  who came for registration to the OPD after the interval of 2 to 3 minutes,  was enrolled in the study if  he give consent till 100 patients was selected in each day. This data was collect for 5 day (Monday to Friday). The questioner was collected when the patient’s complete consultation was done.

Results: Form  the observation of this study and revive of liturature we can definitely conclude that due to heavy patients inflow in our outpatient  department we need to analyse and adopt verious que management methods. Whether it's a time used for registration of patient, routine doctor's appointment, emergency room treatment, laboratory/diagnostic test, procedures, receiving the results of various tests, waiting happens to just about everyone seeking medical care. It's often one of the most frustrating parts about healthcare delivery system. Waiting times for elective care have been considered a serious problem in many health care systems since it acts as a barriers to efficient patient flows and it should be minimum to improve patient satisfaction.

Conclusions: From the finding of above studt it was clearly indicate that maximum patients (81.55%) feel need for improvement in outpatient service and the waiting time in outpatient department was most distressing (73.33%) and its reduction was to be done on priority to improve.

Keywords: Outpatient department, patients waiting, superspeciality hospital, Que managment.

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Dr Rajesh V Nagmothe

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