Patient satisfaction with service waiting time at a tertiary hospital in Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Patient is an individual who suffers from one form of pain or the other and seeksimmediate attention in a health facility in order to calm his/her burden. Undue delay in attending to patients atvarious service points places a negative impact on patients’ perception of quality of service, which often adverselyaffects hospital utilization. The study therefore wishes to determine average outpatient waiting time, establishwaiting time trends in service areas and determine patient satisfaction with services waiting time. Methods/Design:The study adopted a survey research design. The study population were the patient attending outpatient clinics atFederal Medical Centre, Owo, Nigeria. Data analysis was done using SPSS Version 23. Results: The studyreveals that among other things, in Health Information Management department, average waiting and service timewas 27.1 min, at nursing station, 41.4 min, for medical consultation, 57.2 min and patient spent an average of 52.1min receiving pharmaceutical services. Of the patients, 51.2% were dissatisfied with the current waiting time foraccessing health care services, 45.2% were satisfied while 3.6% could not ascertain Conclusion: The studyconcluded that greater percentage of the patient were dissatisfied with current waiting time for accessing care.Therefore, the study recommends commencement of afternoon clinics, adherence to clinic appointments, the useof electronic payment, employment or deployment of more staff and the use of electronic medical records toreduce the undue prolong patient waiting time for an improved patient satisfaction.Keywords: Clinic consultation; health care services; health information management; patient waiting time; patientsatisfaction