There are steps healthcare providers can take to ensure that
patients are able to receive the care they need in a timely fashion.
By Thomas Jefferson University
Online Sep 9, 2019 at 5:00 AM
Anyone
who has ever visited a doctor’s office knows that a long wait can be
frustrating and anxiety-inducing, but long patient wait times also affect
overall satisfaction with healthcare providers. Worse, they can keep patients
from getting the care they need from their physician.
While
some waits are unavoidable, many hospitals and healthcare facilities have taken
steps to become more efficient and transparent. The average patient wait time
in the United States was 18 minutes and 13 seconds, according to a 2018 Vitals study. This
number has decreased significantly since 2009 but is still longer than most
would like to wait.
In
emergency rooms, waits vary greatly. As of March 2019, data from Pro Publica
showed the District of Columbia saw the longest wait time with an average of 49 minutes before being seen by a doctor.
Colorado clocked in with the shortest average wait time at just 10 minutes.
A
development that is likely decreasing emergency room and doctors’ offices wait
times is the increase of alternative healthcare facilities. For non-emergency
after-hours issues, patients can use an urgent care clinic. If they’re unable
to get into their doctor at a convenient time, they can turn to a walk-in
clinic. Walk-in clinics and retail facilities showed patient wait times of 30
or fewer minutes without an appointment.
The Effects of Long
Patient Wait Times
According
to the 2018 Vitals study, there’s a strong correlation between how long a
patient had to wait and the star rating of the healthcare facility. Physicians
with the highest rating had an average wait of just over 13 minutes while those
with the lowest ratings had average wait times of more than 34 minutes.
It’s
possible that aside from the frustration of the wait, patients see this as poor
office management. Perhaps, in some cases, it is truly indicative of how
doctors manage their patients and their care.
“Wait
times are a highly visible indicator
of our performance. No other metric tells us the state of our process so
clearly,” said Aneesh Suneja, MBA, co-author of “Lean Doctors” and
founder of FlowOne Lean Consulting.
Furthermore,
long patient wait times affect not just the perception of care but the actual
care that patients receive. In fact, up to 30% of patients
have left a physician’s office before being seen because of the wait time.
Twenty% would consider changing providers over long waits.
It’s
clear that continuing to track and improve the time it takes for a patient to
see a provider is an important part of providing quality care. Let’s look at
some steps that could help improve patient wait times and the patient waiting
room experience.
Ways to Improve
Patient Wait Times
Many
factors affect wait times, including physician shortages and an aging
population. Some waits are simply unavoidable. Still, there are steps
healthcare providers can take to ensure that patients are able to receive the
care they need in a timely fashion.
Communication
A lot
of patient frustration and walkouts could be solved with clear communication.
Calling patients ahead of time to let them know that the office is severely
behind allows them to adjust their schedule. If that’s not possible, having
support staff acknowledge the wait and give an estimated time that a patient
will see a doctor can impact the perception of care as well.
Appointment
Grouping
Grouping
similar appointments is another way to keep healthcare professionals focused
and segment the day into manageable workloads. For example, if possible, schedule
all blood pressure checks at a certain time of day or a few back-to-back
physicals. This segmenting of tasks can get nurses and doctors into a flow and
help them accomplish things faster.
Patient
Control
Some
frustration that customers feel when dealing with doctor’s offices may be
caused by loss of control. Allowing patients to self-schedule, having a block
of time for same-day appointments or designated walk-in hours gives some
control back to patients and helps them better schedule their healthcare
appointments into their day.
Online
Tools
Allowing
patients to check in online can improve the patient waiting room experience and
reduce the time spent at the office. It also frees office staff to be available
to waiting patients instead of taking insurance information and explaining
paperwork. In addition, offering a way for patients to contact their doctor
online for quick questions can reduce the number of office visits needed and
decrease wait times.
If
patient wait times are severe in a healthcare facility, it may help to create a
task force to evaluate why the staff is falling behind and come up with
individualized suggestions to make the organization more efficient.
Ways to Improve
Emergency Department Wait Times
Emergency
departments obviously see their own challenges when reducing wait times. A
study published in Clinical and Experimental Emergency Medicine in
2016 suggested a few key ways emergency rooms can expedite their
processes to get patients seen more quickly. They include these, among other
recommendations:
- Doctor-led
triage: A
review confirmed that having a senior doctor involved in the triage
process effectively reduces crowding and patient wait time.
- Streaming: This is the
allocation of similar patients to a similar work stream or dedicated staff
in a specific area of the emergency department. Streaming results in
reduced wait times and less time spent in the ER overall.
- Primary care in
the emergency room: Having primary care physicians
available in the emergency department for patients with less urgent needs
resulted in a 19% decrease in the average wait time for patients and
overall better patient satisfaction.
Positively Impact
Patient Satisfaction
There’s
significant room for healthcare professionals to have a positive impact on
patient satisfaction as it relates to patient wait times. Ensuring that
patients have a positive experience and receive the care they need in a timely
fashion is incredibly important to the success of healthcare facilities and our
healthcare system.
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