- Email: [email protected]
Patients' waiting-time
Brit. 07. Dis. Chest (x96o) 54, 296.
REPORT PATIENTS' WAITING-TIME ORGANISATION OF A CHEST CLINIC*
PATIENTS' waiting-time is one of the points discussed in a Ministry of Itealth report. This is the latest in a series of studies of hospital organisation and methods and discusses the details of organising the flow of patients at chest clinics, the design of an out-patient appointments system and the clerical practices needed to support these arrangements and to maintain the necessary medical records. The report states that the great bulk of matters dealt with is concerned with efficiency of a fairly mechanical kind. It is recognised that this efficiency ranks only second in importance to the standard of medical and nursing care which is given to the patients. These two aspects are not, however, conflicting but complementary. It was found that the minimum time each " old " patient spends at a chest clinic after the first visit cannot be much less than half an hour, because it is fairly general practice for the patients to wait for consultation until the " wet " X-ray film is ready, and films take about twenty minutes to process. A reasonable minimum waiting-time for " new " patients is about an hour. These times are achieved at some clinics with some of their patients, but others are obliged to spend from two and a half to three hours on the premises (with no special justification, such as an additional X-ray, to account for the difference). Unnecessary waiting-time contributes to congestion in waiting rooms, passages, etc. If space is limited, patients suffer overcrowding, inconvenience and discomfort, and the risks of infection being passed from one to another are increased. The main cause of avoidable waiting-time is that the call-up and movement of the patients through the various stages in the clinic procedure are not properly related to any physical limitations of the accommodation in which the clinic is housed. These may remain even after measures arc taken to ensure that the accommodation is used to maximum advantage. I f consultation clinics are to run smoothly it is necessary to measure both the capacity of the various parts of tile accommodation through which the patients have to pass and the time it takes the staff or the patient to carry out each part of the procedure, and to organise the clinics in the light of these facts. The evidence of the time studies shows that the times taken at the various stages of the procedure at chest clinics do not vary greatly as between patients. Even the times needed for medical consultations are carried out at a fairly constant rate, although a distinction has t o be made between new and old patients at some stages. It was quite possible to decide on average times for the purposes of organising a smooth and even flow of patients. The studies showed that the majority of patients arrived early rather than late, but that the rate of non-attendance was high. The report states that the aims of a good and effective appointments system in a chest clinic are not only to spare the patients unnecessary waiting, but thereby also to encourage a higher level of attendance. * Hospital O. a n d M. Service Reports No. 3, Chest Clinics. H . M . S . O .
xs. 9 d. net.
REPORT PATIENTS' WAITING-TIME ORGANISATION OF A CHEST CLINIC*
PATIENTS' waiting-time is one of the points discussed in a Ministry of Itealth report. This is the latest in a series of studies of hospital organisation and methods and discusses the details of organising the flow of patients at chest clinics, the design of an out-patient appointments system and the clerical practices needed to support these arrangements and to maintain the necessary medical records. The report states that the great bulk of matters dealt with is concerned with efficiency of a fairly mechanical kind. It is recognised that this efficiency ranks only second in importance to the standard of medical and nursing care which is given to the patients. These two aspects are not, however, conflicting but complementary. It was found that the minimum time each " old " patient spends at a chest clinic after the first visit cannot be much less than half an hour, because it is fairly general practice for the patients to wait for consultation until the " wet " X-ray film is ready, and films take about twenty minutes to process. A reasonable minimum waiting-time for " new " patients is about an hour. These times are achieved at some clinics with some of their patients, but others are obliged to spend from two and a half to three hours on the premises (with no special justification, such as an additional X-ray, to account for the difference). Unnecessary waiting-time contributes to congestion in waiting rooms, passages, etc. If space is limited, patients suffer overcrowding, inconvenience and discomfort, and the risks of infection being passed from one to another are increased. The main cause of avoidable waiting-time is that the call-up and movement of the patients through the various stages in the clinic procedure are not properly related to any physical limitations of the accommodation in which the clinic is housed. These may remain even after measures arc taken to ensure that the accommodation is used to maximum advantage. I f consultation clinics are to run smoothly it is necessary to measure both the capacity of the various parts of tile accommodation through which the patients have to pass and the time it takes the staff or the patient to carry out each part of the procedure, and to organise the clinics in the light of these facts. The evidence of the time studies shows that the times taken at the various stages of the procedure at chest clinics do not vary greatly as between patients. Even the times needed for medical consultations are carried out at a fairly constant rate, although a distinction has t o be made between new and old patients at some stages. It was quite possible to decide on average times for the purposes of organising a smooth and even flow of patients. The studies showed that the majority of patients arrived early rather than late, but that the rate of non-attendance was high. The report states that the aims of a good and effective appointments system in a chest clinic are not only to spare the patients unnecessary waiting, but thereby also to encourage a higher level of attendance. * Hospital O. a n d M. Service Reports No. 3, Chest Clinics. H . M . S . O .
xs. 9 d. net.