An evaluation of wait-times at an interprofessional student-run free clinic

Student-run free clinics (SRFCs) are becoming increasingly popular programmes in schools for promoting interprofessional education and service learning. Despite their prevalence, little research has been done surrounding SRFCs and wait-times. SRFCs may experience long wait-times because patients are often seen on a drop-in basis and time has to be allotted for interprofessional case discussion and teaching. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the wait-times for patients being seen at an interprofessional SRFC and determine potential improvements. Wait-times, total treatment room times, total time per patient, and whether a referral and/or prescription was given were tracked from May 2014 to July 2015 at an SRFC. A total of 268 patients were seen in 52 clinics. On average, five patients were seen per clinic. Patients waited for an average time of 21 minutes before they were seen by the team. Average treatment time per patient was 69 minutes. Patients were generally at the clinic for a total of 91 minutes before being discharged. Several improvements for managing client flow at interprofessional SRFCs are discussed.