Waiting Time Model

Reducing Waiting Time of Outdoor Patients in Hospitals using different types of Models: A Systematic Survey

Abstract:

This paper surveys different types of issues which lead to increased waiting time in Hospitals. Hospitals have opted for a variety of techniques to deal with such functional and structural problems to help reduce Waiting time for Outdoor patients to improve upon Patient satisfaction and overall efficiency. Applications and contributions of different types of Operations Research Models in Health Care field to overcome the waiting time issues faced by Outpatient in Hospitals have been further discussed in the paper. Also, use of electronic health records and practice management tools by Medical practitioners to enable faster

Few definitions also refer it to the total time that a patient spends to receive a particular service since entering to the hospital till entering the examination room to visit a doctor. (Leddy, 2003).Waiting time is defined as the total time from registration until consultation with a doctor. There are two waiting times, the first is time taken to see a doctor and the second is time to obtain medicine. (JamaiahHj Mohd Sharif, 2003). Registration time i.e. time including the payment process and record classification made is also part of patient’s waiting time. This aspect of waiting time can be dealt with the new techniques of reducing waiting time. The other aspect i.e. waiting within the hospital can be reduced only through basic interventions approaches including deploying appropriate work force including doctors, staff

The coordination of processes within the patient flow is difficult to achieve. T. Melo et. al[3] found that in a high-cost unit such as the operating theatre, schedules for elective surgeries are usually created without analyzing their effect on other hospital departments such as diagnostic units (e.g. medical imaging and laboratories), nursing wards, and recovery rooms. The lack of dexterity results in the underutilization of expensive resources (staff and equipment) and in delays in the patient flow. Moreover, it contributes to increased patient inconvenience due to longer waiting times. Hospitals are not aware of the importance of determining the earliest point in time at which the relevant information becomes available to order resources required further down in the patient