2018 Volume 67 Issue 4 Pages 546-553
For better efficiency of outpatient clinical service, it is important that examination results are prepared by the consultation appointment time and the consultations can be carried out as scheduled. In order to realize that, in April 2017, we established a blood collection system prioritizing patients’ clinical schedule such as consultation appointment time. As one and a half years have passed since we started the blood collection system, we analyzed the waiting time for blood collection and the required time for sampling in 7,185 patients whose blood samples were drawn in September 2017. With the introduction of the blood collection system, more than 90% of the 1,011 patients accepted from 7:30 to 7:59 before starting blood collection were those whose appointment times were early, i.e., before 10 o’clock, which led us to consider that the patients started to adjust their arrival time at the blood collection reception in accordance with their consultation appointment times. Consequently, this system made it possible to reduce the congestion of patients before blood collection starts, and enabled us to report examination results within one hour after their reception.
