抄録
It is a big problem for Japanese hospitals to have to receive a lot of outpatients every day. But the outpatient department (OPD) plays an important role in the health maintenance of people, and the meaning of OPD is highly evaluated today. The purpose of this study is to get the key to design the OPD through quantitative and qualitative analyses on streams of patients' traffic within the OPD of hopital. We investigated the flow of outpatients at Kagawa Prefectural Hospital, Yokohama City Hospital, St. Luke's International Hopital, Tokyo Teishin Hospital, etc. The results of analyses are as follows: (1) The maximum number of patients staying in the hospital at every moment of clinic hours is 50-60% of total number of patients of the day. (2) Average lengths of stay of outpatient are one hour and a half to two hours and a half. (3) Introduction of reservation system in consulting and examination at OPD can reduce the length of stay of patients evidently. And it is to shorten the waiting time of patients at the hospital pharmacy, that the prescriptions should be sended quickly to a pharmacy, as soon as a physician makes them. (4) The rate of patients who go to physiological test in laboratories is 2-6%, and X-ray department is 10-14%. The ratio of patients receiving medicine is over 50%. The average proportion of patients who go to the clinical laboratory for urine test is 15% and for blood test is 12%. (5) Most of the patients' traffic pattern in OPD are not so complicated. [Consulting Room → Accounting Counter] and [Consulting Room → Accounting Counter → Pharmacy] share the half pattern of all flow. We observed some patients going to the laboratory or X-ray department in the intervals of consultation.
