AN ASSESSMENT OF PATIENT WAITING AND CONSULTATION TIME IN THE OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT AT A SELECTED TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL

BACKGROUND Outpatient department has become an essential part of the hospital due to the fact that it is the first step of the treatment system and point of contact between a hospital and community. Waiting time refers to the time a patient waits in the clinic being seen by one of the clinical medical staff. Objectives- 1. To calculate the patient waiting and consultation time for each specialty. 2. To analyse the cause and effect for the delay. 3. To recommend appropriate suggestions to optimize the waiting time in OPD. MATERIALS AND METHODS A study was carried out using descriptive study design in Yenepoya Medical College Hospital, Mangalore, Karnataka over a period of 3 months and a total of 350 patients were included in this study from various departments such as Medicine, Surgery, Nephrology, Neurology, Oncology, Paediatrics, Ophthalmology, Pulmonary Medicine, Dermatology, Psychiatry, Orthopaedics, Urology, ENT and OBG. RESULTS The average waiting time for all the Outpatient departments was found to be 44.85 minutes. The lowest waiting time was 17.92 minutes and highest waiting time was 126.56 minutes in surgery and nephrology department respectively. Similarly, average consultation time for all the outpatient departments was found to be 17.357 minutes. The lowest consultation time was 6.00 minutes in medicine department and highest consultation time was 76.840 minutes in psychiatry department. After analysing the relationship between consultations and waiting time using Spearman's rank correlation it was found that there was no strong correlation between consultation and waiting time. In ENT department it was found that there was negative correlation whereas in psychiatry and dermatology departments, there was weak positive correlation. CONCLUSION This study has brought to the surface of certain areas where the hospital needs to pay attention. The main reason for delay was found to be unexpected leave by faculty, disorganized files, delay in mobilization of old file from MRD to OPD etc.