To shorten processing time for variety of medical affairs of the patient at the outpatient clinic of a big hospital is very important to qualify medical care of the patient. Therefore, patient"s waiting time for medical examination is often utilized as a strong tool to evaluate patient satisfaction with a medical care provided. We performed this study to investigate factors delaying related with waiting time for medical examination.
The data were collected from June 2 to 14. A total of 242 cases were used as final data for our analysis, selected from the patients waited more than 30 minutes who visited outpatient clinics of a general hospital in county areas of Jeonbuk province. The data were analyzed using frequency, t-test, ANOVA by SPSS 12.0 for windows program.
As a result, the mean patient"s waiting time was 45.79±18.443 minutes. Patient"s waiting time was statistically significant difference in medical departments, day of the week, and factors delaying. The result show that, besides the starting time of medical examination, consultation hours and patients arriving time, may influence the patient"s subjective evaluation of waiting time.
In oder to improve patient satisfaction related with waiting time, it will be effective to change of reservation system (as revision of reservation interval) for medical examination rather than to shorten the real processing time within the consultation room.
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