Survey of outpatient waiting time Patient service improvement committee

--Working group on outpatient waiting time--

Abstract

On September 9 and 10, 2002, we conducted a survey on the waiting time at the outpatient clinics of all the clinical departments in our hospital. The longest waiting time period was “from reception to medical consultation”, averaging 97.5 minutes and constituting approximately 70% of the total waiting time. At worst, it was as long as 445 minutes. The appointment time was overrun by an average of 49.0 minutes, and 30% of the patients waited more than 60 minutes beyond the appointment time. In the future, substantial shortening of waiting time and effective utilization of waiting time are issues requiring consideration.