Waiting Time to Receive Healthcare Services and Factors Affecting It: Case Study in a University Hospital
Background: The clinic in a hospital is usually the first place to which patients are referred. A long queue, which results in dissatisfaction among patients, is economically costly for managers; medical institutions can, therefore, determine the level of required resources for optimum investment th...
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Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences
2017-06-01
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doaj-33513541010c47608a1ddcc04f16326c2020-11-24T23:08:39ZengShahid Sadoughi University of Medical SciencesJournal of Evidence Based Health Policy, Management & Economics2538-50702538-47162017-06-0112112119Waiting Time to Receive Healthcare Services and Factors Affecting It: Case Study in a University HospitalSeyed Masood Mousavi0Fateme Pourshariati1Ghasem Rajabi2Mojgan Letafatnejad3 Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Students Scientific Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Background: The clinic in a hospital is usually the first place to which patients are referred. A long queue, which results in dissatisfaction among patients, is economically costly for managers; medical institutions can, therefore, determine the level of required resources for optimum investment through management tools like queue theory and waiting time caused by it. The current study was conducted to evaluate waiting time at various clinics of Amir Alam Hospital in Tehran. Methods: The analytical study was conducted in the period from April to August in 2015 on 150 patients who were referred to five clinics of Amir Alam Hospital. The samples were selected through stratified random proportion to sample size and data was collected in a designed frame through SPSS21 and descriptive tests of mean, standard deviation and regression analysis. Results: The longest waiting time for patients was related to the surgery clinic at 61.05 minutes. Also, the longest time to provide service was related to the surgery unit at 26.84 minutes. Results obtained from univariate logistic regression test indicated that all evaluated variables—including time to receive service, capacity of providing service, order of queues and number of doctors—exert a significant effect on waiting time of patients in the hospital (P-value < 0.05). Conclusion: Increasing capacities, keeping adequate number of doctors, reforms, removal of unnecessary works and using scientific tools to manage queues can be effective in reducing waiting time for patients. Owing to its importance for patient satisfaction, it is necessary for managers to think of ways to shorten queues in hospitalshttp://jebhpme.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-26-15&slc_lang=en&sid=1Clinic Teaching Hospital Outpatients Waiting Time |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Seyed Masood Mousavi Fateme Pourshariati Ghasem Rajabi Mojgan Letafatnejad |
spellingShingle |
Seyed Masood Mousavi Fateme Pourshariati Ghasem Rajabi Mojgan Letafatnejad Waiting Time to Receive Healthcare Services and Factors Affecting It: Case Study in a University Hospital Journal of Evidence Based Health Policy, Management & Economics Clinic Teaching Hospital Outpatients Waiting Time |
author_facet |
Seyed Masood Mousavi Fateme Pourshariati Ghasem Rajabi Mojgan Letafatnejad |
author_sort |
Seyed Masood Mousavi |
title |
Waiting Time to Receive Healthcare Services and Factors Affecting It: Case Study in a University Hospital |
title_short |
Waiting Time to Receive Healthcare Services and Factors Affecting It: Case Study in a University Hospital |
title_full |
Waiting Time to Receive Healthcare Services and Factors Affecting It: Case Study in a University Hospital |
title_fullStr |
Waiting Time to Receive Healthcare Services and Factors Affecting It: Case Study in a University Hospital |
title_full_unstemmed |
Waiting Time to Receive Healthcare Services and Factors Affecting It: Case Study in a University Hospital |
title_sort |
waiting time to receive healthcare services and factors affecting it: case study in a university hospital |
publisher |
Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences |
series |
Journal of Evidence Based Health Policy, Management & Economics |
issn |
2538-5070 2538-4716 |
publishDate |
2017-06-01 |
description |
Background: The clinic in a hospital is usually the first place to which patients are referred. A long queue, which results in dissatisfaction among patients, is economically costly for managers; medical institutions can, therefore, determine the level of required resources for optimum investment through management tools like queue theory and waiting time caused by it. The current study was conducted to evaluate waiting time at various clinics of Amir Alam Hospital in Tehran.
Methods: The analytical study was conducted in the period from April to August in 2015 on 150 patients who were referred to five clinics of Amir Alam Hospital. The samples were selected through stratified random proportion to sample size and data was collected in a designed frame through SPSS21 and descriptive tests of mean, standard deviation and regression analysis.
Results: The longest waiting time for patients was related to the surgery clinic at 61.05 minutes. Also, the longest time to provide service was related to the surgery unit at 26.84 minutes. Results obtained from univariate logistic regression test indicated that all evaluated variables—including time to receive service, capacity of providing service, order of queues and number of doctors—exert a significant effect on waiting time of patients in the hospital (P-value < 0.05).
Conclusion: Increasing capacities, keeping adequate number of doctors, reforms, removal of unnecessary works and using scientific tools to manage queues can be effective in reducing waiting time for patients. Owing to its importance for patient satisfaction, it is necessary for managers to think of ways to shorten queues in hospitals |
topic |
Clinic Teaching Hospital Outpatients Waiting Time |
url |
http://jebhpme.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-26-15&slc_lang=en&sid=1 |
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