WAITING TIMES IN THE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

Abstract

Background. Prolonged waiting times for the admission to the hospital are important factor of patient dissatisfaction with health care in the hospital.Methods. Questionnaire (check-list) was used to measure time intervals of the individual phases of health care from admission in the out-patient department to the admission to the ward. Check-list was filled in by nurses both in the out-patient department and hospital wards. In the study we included 572 patients of which 505 were admitted to the hospital.Results. Average waiting time from admission in out-patient department to placement in the bed in hospital ward was 93.6 minutes. Shortest waiting time was observed in urgent patients, longest in non booked patients. On average patients waited 54.8 minutes from admisssion till the end of examination of the admitting physician and 17.5 minutes from entering the hospital ward to placement in their bed. Majority, 68% of patients were admitted in the morning shift, 23% in the afternoon, and 9% in the night shift. Non-admitted patients waited on average 202 minutes before completion of their workup and release from the out-patient department.Conclusions. Our study revealed bottle-necks in the admitting procedure and supported efforts for simplification and hence shortening. Besides changes in admitting procedure, reorganization of laboratory service and changes in the existing hospital information system are also indicated.

Keywords

• quality in health care
• waiting time
• admission to the hospital