Recommendations Report on How to Reduce Patient Wait Time in Medical Offices

This is the report you requested concerning the possible measures to reduce patient wait times in the medical offices. This report highlights some of the factors that contribute to long queues in the medical offices. The report presents what can be done to reduce the waiting time in the healthcare facilities and to improve the quality of services in the facility.

The recommendation in this research is based on modern research on the topic. The first recommendation is that there is a need to increase the number of service providers in the medical offices. When patients are more than the medical officers are, the patients have to wait for long hours. Second, there is a need to state the opening and closing time of the medical offices. Most patients visit the medical offices earlier than expected and ended up waiting for a long time before they see the doctor.

In the research, there is an intensive use of peer-reviewed journals, books, internet sources, and university library to gather relevant information. There is also a review of statistic about the waiting time in different medical offices in the United States.

The opportunity to work on this research is highly appreciated. If need be, you are free to send your request for further research.

Sincerely,

How to reduce patient Wait time in medical offices

2014 CBC news. The Patients waiting for a long time to see medical officers in Canada

Executive Summary

The report is the final project for the term. The decision to focus on the topic measures to reduce the patient wait time was informed. The topic touches the lives of many because each person is a victim of long queues in health facility each time they want to see a doctor. The topic is therefore relevant for examination because there is a need for recommendation to fix the problems.

The evidence from the research shows that medical officers try their best to reduce patient wait time but in vain. This research uses resources such as online books, case studies, and library books to give a recommendation on the issue. In the research, it is clear that the ratio of patients to medical officers in most health offices is unfavorable. Besides, most medical offices do not have a written time for a visit and for attending particular problems.

Using the findings, the following are the recommendations.

Initiate a program that advocates for adequate staffing in medical offices. The management of most medical offices needs to ensure that the ratio of patients to health providers is favorable.

The management should Schedule visiting time in the hospital notice boards to ensure that patient vesting at the appropriate time. There is a need to classify medical conditions into categories and assign an appropriate time for visits.

The above recommendations are cheap to implement. It is an advantage for health facilities to employ a favorable number of medical professional and to serve a greater number of patients.

Introduction

The report attempts to answer questions regarding the causes of long waiting time in medical offices. It aims at explaining some of the measures to address the issue of waiting time. The report presents working strategies that help change the setting of medical offices. Some of the recommendations to discuss in the report include improving the number of workforce in medical offices and writing clear schedules for doctors to meet specific medical conditions. There is a need to separate serious medical conditions from simple ailments. There is a need for specialization to ensure that doctors know their line of duty to reduce congestion on the medical office's premises (Viberg et al., 2013)

Background

The media promote the spread of information regarding the issues facing medical patients in the medical facilities. The world population is rising gradually and therefore the number of people visiting medical facilities is increasing yearly. There are new cases of health complication affecting the population and the need for a specialist on the new infections. The long waiting time in the medical offices risks the lives of the patients because some of them are in critical conditions. The table below shows the difference in the waiting in various countries. It is apparent in the table that the waiting time is too long that need there is a need to implement the appropriate recommendation to reduce the long waiting time in medical offices (Viberg, Forsberg, Borowitz, & Molin, 2013).

Country Elective surgery( waiting time in days) Total hip replacement (Waiting time in days)

Sweden 31-60 31-60 days

England 35 78 days

Canada 42-178 2-88 days

Portugal 2 months 2 months

Denmark 25 days 1month

Australia 34 days 100 days

The delays in the medical offices risk the lives of patients where some of them lose their lives while waiting for the services.

The report provides reliable information to readers with little idea about the causes of long waiting time, ways to reduce waiting time and consequences of long waiting time among the patients. The report provides the findings, recommendation, and the conclusion

Recommendations

There is a need to increase the number of medical professionals in the facility to provide services to the many patients. It is hard to regulate the number of a patient visiting a medical facility yet it is simple to employ more staff to provide services to the rising population of patients. In this case, there is a need for a favorable ratio of patients to medical officers to address the problem. Research shows that the many patients on the waiting list result in the shortages of personnel to address the problem. For this, it is recommended that the management of medical facilities should consider employing more staff to address the shortages of personnel.

There is a need to schedule visiting time appropriately. In a medical office, there is a serious and moderate case of health complications. As a result, there is a need for classifications medical conditions and scheduling to ensure that patients receive the services in good time. All types of patients need to know their visiting time, the persons to provide the services to avoid delays.

Research methods

The research involves a review of scholarly articles, reading of internet sources and library sources to seeking reliable information for the recommendations. The statistics in the report is obtained from a variety of sources that gives latest reports regarding the patient waiting time in different countries.

Findings

In the research, it was clear that inadequate staff cause delays in medical offices. At least in some the medical facilities the ratio of staff to the patients is unfavorable. Besides, the research showed that most patients are not sure of the visiting time in most of the hospitals. Visiting the medical offices at the wrong time contributes to the long waiting time in the facility. The table below shows the number of medical officers and patients in one week in a certain medical office (Oche, & Adamu, H. (2013).

Variables Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4

No. of patients 148 162 152 137

No. of Nurses 2 2 2 2

No. of doctors 4 5 4 4

No. of records clerks 2 2 1 2

Conclusion

The research revealed that the causes of long waiting time in medical offices are shortages of personnel and lack of schedule. The findings indicate that the medical officers are overworked because of the overwhelming number of patients visiting the premises. The recommendations to the menace involve the call for employing more medical officers and indicating the visiting time clearly. The patients need to visit the medical facility at the appropriate time to avoid delays.

Reference

Oche, M. O., & Adamu, H. (2013). Determinants of patient waiting time in the general outpatient department of a tertiary health institution in north Western Nigeria. Annals of medical and health sciences research, 3(4), 588-592.

Viberg, N., Forsberg, B. C., Borowitz, M., & Molin, R. (2013). International comparisons of waiting times in health careLimitations and prospects. Health Policy, 112(1), 53-61.