Waiting Times At Clinics And The General Organization Of The Proposal

Physicians located within wealthier and more populous areas have slightly better access to equipment and infrastructure, but the conditions differ only slightly. Doctors are extremely rushed with a constant overflow of patients and consistently working in hot rooms with little air circulation. This is problem does not only exist in the public clinics of general physicians. Specialist physicians have a persistent flood of patients who do not need a specialist’s care, but seek the specialist because there is no general physician available.

Retailing choices – Patients have several choices to receive services, through the hospital, a clinic visit, and now the minute clinic. Mayo has two Minute clinics’ that are a walk-in center and are used to assess and treat minor conditions, and monitor chronic conditions of patients and no appointment is required. The wait time is usually less than 15 minutes. (Keckley, Ph.D., P. H., 2008).

For this performance problem, I would use the Lean model as the solution to the problem. We learn from the text that Lean manufacturing ideas are used in the healthcare industry to enhance efficiency and eradicate waste. From my perspective, extended wait times and deferrals are considered examples of wasting time and assets. The Lean model is the improvement model I selected for this particular situation because it accentuates value to the consumer, and in the health industry, the consumer values efficiency and short wait times.

The implications and effects on patients waiting long hours to be seen in the ED are immense. In a recent study done over five years in Ontario hospitals showed the risk of adverse events and even deaths increased with the length of stay in the ED (Science Daily, 2011). When EDs become overcrowded the quality of care changes and declines; which is extremely dangerous. Authors of the study calculated that if ED length of stay was cut by only an hour that 150 fewer Ontarians would die each year (Science Daily, 2011). Wait times can also negatively affect patients financially, untreated medical conditions can lead to reduced productivity and inability to work leading to increased financial strains (Fraser Institute, 2014). As well as delayed access to care can result in more complex interventions needed. Therefore an initiative is needed to provide patients with timely, efficient care when accessing

When a patient scheduled an appointment, they arrived, and now you are waiting to be seen by the doctor for over 15 minutes. Or when you have the appointment, and you have waited in the lobby for about 20 minutes pass your appointment time to be seen by the doctor, you’re called inside the patient room, and from there you are still asked to wait on the doctor for over 15 minutes.

In terms of avoidable hospital stays and service use, I found that better medical care within the hospitals results in better satisfactory by the patients and physicians, which means that patients must receive the best care and not be avoided. For example, the website helps me understand that if a primary care physician provides a diabetes patient with good quality care, then they may not need a hospital stay. This shows that not all hospital stays are avoidable, but they are preventable by providing the quality care they deserve. Another factor towards avoidable hospital stays may depend on where the patients live and

Rodak, S. (2012) How Cleveland Clinic Reduced Cancer Patients' Wait Times by More Than 80%. Becker's Hospital Review. 26 Sept 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/capacity-management/how-cleveland-clinic-reduced-cancer-patients-wait-times-by-more-than-80.html

It is not a good to keep your patients waiting to see you. That wait time should not be more than ten minutes but more than likely, it should not be more than seven minutes. The reason for the shorter wait time is that when your patients come to see you is, because do not feel well, and the longer they wait the more uncomfortable they feel. When they are uncomfortable and annoyed because they were kept waiting they take it out on the staff and even the physician. Everyone realizes that Doctors get patients that come and they are sicker than they thought, so when this happens someone should come

Since it was perceived as a need region in 2004, hold up times has been at the bleeding edge of medicinal services arranging. Huge ventures have been made to expand assets and enhance learning—all with a definitive objective of diminishing sits tight experienced by patients for human services administrations. Advance has been made in the five need regions distinguished in 2004, however much work stays to be done, both here and in different parts of the human services framework. This report can help framework chiefs by encouraging a superior comprehension of the present scene and illuminating prioritization for what's to come.

This research is trying to answer the question of how to reduce overcrowding in emergency rooms? Would people would want to access published wait times provided on the internet, and would this guide a patient make decisions on where they receive their care. The hypothesis being one, crowding maybe reduced with having upfront information, and therefore also provide increased patient satisfaction due to waiting less. Patients would have more choices available to them such as

Ambulatory care comprises health care services that do not require overnight hospitalization. (Sultz, Young , p. 129). An improved process would have the patient as its focus, considering the effective use of varying levels of providers managing each step of the clinical visit to properly gather information, reducing the number of interactions, and improving the patient experience while providing a better set of outcomes (Backer & Asso). Also ambulatory care facilities are mainly for invasive techniques that are replacing the complex, inpatient procedures.

What I would recommend to the ambulatory health service first is to focus on the wait time being too long. That’s where most of the complaints were so that’s where the focus should be. In order to cut down on the wait time there needs to be an increase in staff to get through as many people in less time. Your peak time where this complaint was the highest was during March. During this month is where you can hire “seasonal” or part time employees. The wait times will definitely decrease if we have more staff to see the

In order to alleviate the long wait times, the clinic either needs to hire more physicians at an additional cost of $55,000 each, or the clinic needs to find ways to increase the utilization of the nurse practitioners to reduce the burden carried by the physicians. In light of the comparatively high cost of hiring physicians as compared with the cost of increasing the utilization of the nurse practitioners, we recommend taking the following steps instead of simply hiring additional physicians.

To me a reasonable wait time should be no more than 10 to 15 minutes from time of the patient’s arrival to when he or she is taken to an exam room. Once the patient is in the exam room he or she should not have to wait more than 20 minutes to see the physician, physician’s assistant, or nurse practitioner. If there is a delay in seeing patients who are in the waiting room, front office staff should tactfully notify patients of the delay and give patients the opportunity to reschedule if they wish. If the office/facility has a full understanding of time management this will ensure that patients are not left waiting in the waiting room.

22% of the patients had to wait for more than 35mins before first contact with a nurse. Patients who requested specific physicians waited an average of 40 minutes to see the desired physician