[Analysis of patient waiting times in a polyclinic for surgery]

Waiting times are a negative aspect for patients and therefore have a major influence on patient satisfaction. The aim of this research study was to evaluate waiting times from registration until first contact with a doctor in the outpatient department of the Polyclinic for Visceral, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery of the University Hospital Marburg.

Waiting times for 253 patients in the outpatient department were measured over a time period of 3 months. The mean age was 59.6 years (range 13-91 years). Patients were asked if they were satisfied with the waiting time and whether waiting time is a criterion in the choice of hospital.

The mean waiting time of all 253 patients was 61 min, 48 (19 %) patients had to wait less than 15 min, 42 (16.6 %) patients 15-30 min, 57 (22.5 %) patients 30-60 min, 65 (25.7 %) patients 60-120 min, 36 (14.2 %) patients 120-240 min and 5 (2 %) patients had to wait 240-300 min. The mean waiting time was 109 min in the group of dissatisfied patients, whereas satisfied patients had a mean waiting time of 46 min (p = 0.000). We further evaluated patient satisfaction in correlation with waiting times at a cut-off of 30 min. Of the patients 163 had to wait more than 30 min whereby 106 (65 %) patients out of this group evaluated the waiting time as appropriate and 57 (35 %) as unsatisfactory. A total of 90 patients had to wait 30 min or less whereby 88 (97.8 %) patients out of this group were satisfied with the waiting time and 2 (2.2 %) were dissatisfied (p = 0.000). For 144 (56.9 %) out of the 253 patients the waiting time was a major criterion in the choice of hospital.

Short waiting times play an important role in patient satisfaction and therefore represent a major competitive factor. From our results we concluded that a waiting time of 30 min should not be exceeded in order to maintain a high patient satisfaction.