Abstract
We examined a cross-sectional survey to investigate the relationship between waiting time, time with a physician, physician continuity and patient satisfaction on outpatient setting. Fifteen hundred outpatientin an educational hospital were sampled and asked about time spent for waiting and for meeting with aphysician. Five-ranked response choices were adopted. For asking patient satisfaction, we used 14 item questionnaire that included three dimensions of patient satisfaction; satisfaction for physicians (PSMD), satisfaction for nurses (PSNS), and general satisfaction (PSGN).
For the concrete question item “How much extent are you satisfied with the meeting with the physicians today?” 86% of the respondents answered “very satisfied” or “satisfied”. Subgroup statistics showed that all mean scores of the PSMD, PSNS, and PSGN scales significantly higher among patient groups whose meeting time with a physician were “5-10 minutes” and “10-20 minutes” than those with shorter or longer meeting time. The patients with whom the same physician continuously made appointments had higher score in PSMD and PSGN than those who saw different physicians. Our results suggested the importance of appropriate meeting time with physicians and clinical continuity for service delivery on outpatient setting.
