• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.460-467
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• 2020

The medical service, accompanied by various disease and disease of modern people, must collect various information about patients through various tests, and demand continued to increase. As a result, interest in waiting time for medical services is rising, and various studies are underway to reduce waiting time. However, medical procedure is complex and diverse in the procedure of the services need to be conducted for each procedure. In this study, we are going to propose ways to improve the waiting time of the test procedures that are basically experienced by outpatients through the simulation experimental method. Based on the actual measurement data, the Arena Simulation program was used to implement the hospital's ophthalmic examination model and alternative model. Through this analysis, the waiting time of the examination procedure, the size of the queue, and density of the waiting room were analyzed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.27-44
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• 2009

The length of stay in emergency departments has been used as a quality indicator to reflect the overall efficiency of emergency care. Identifying characteristics associated with length of stay is critical to monitor overcrowding and improve efficient throughput function of emergency departments. This study examined the level of waiting time for initial assessment by physician and length of stay in emergency departments. Furthermore, we investigated the characteristics of patients' attendance associated with length of stay. An observational study was performed for a sample of 1,526 patients visiting ten nation-wide emergency departments. A structured form was designed to collect information about patients' demographics, route of admission, time and mode of arrival, triage level, cause of attendance, initial assessment time by physician, departure time, and disposition. Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine factors associated with length of stay. The average length of stay was 209.4 minutes (95% confidence interval [CI]=197.1-221.7), with a mean waiting time for initial assessment of 5.9 minutes (95% CI=5.1-6.7). After controlling for emergency department characteristics, increasing age, longer waiting times, attendance due to diseases, higher acuity, multiple diagnoses($\geq$2) and requiring admission or transfer to other health care facilities were positively associated with length of stay in emergency departments. The findings suggest that both patients' characteristics and the flow between emergency departments and parent hospitals should be taken into account in predicting length of stay in emergency departments.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.2829-2834
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• 2013

The objective was to analyze the radiotherapy (RT) practice at the cancer centre of a tertiary academic medical institution in Delhi. This audit from an Indian public institution covered patient care processes related to cancer diagnosis, integration of RT with other anti-cancer modalities, waiting time, overall treatment time, and compliance with RT. Over a period of one year, all consecutively registered patients in radiotherapy were analyzed for the audit cycle. Analysis of 1,030 patients showed median age of 49.6 years, with presentation as stage I and II in 14.2%, stage III and IV in 71.2% and unknown stage in 14.6%. A total of 974 (95%) were advised for RT appointment; 669 (68.6%) for curative intent and 31.4% for palliation. Mean times for diagnostic workup and from registration at cancer centre to radiotherapy referral were 33 and 31 days respectively. Median waiting time to start of RT course was 41 days. Overall RT compliance was 75% and overall duration for a curative RT course ranged from 50 days to 61 days. Non-completion and interruption of RT course were observed in 12% and 13% respectively. Radiotherapy machine burden in a public cancer hospital in India increases the waiting time and 25% of advised patients do not comply with the prescribed treatment. Infrastructure, machine and manpower constraints lead to more patients being treated on cobalt (74%) and by two-dimensional (78%) techniques.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2013

PACS Import external image of the thread of the tasks and duties of hospital revenue and business efficiency falls over time. 500 beds or more medical imaging import work outside of the hospital, most hospitals use a PC, KIOSK, and was used in 15 hospitals where, CD Autoloader where use was the only one. Working hours compared to CD and DVD media to test the results of the Import target PC, KIOSK, CD Autoloader Import spent less time in the order, and also the greater capacity of CD Autoloader four times the PC, KIOSK 2 times Import could be implemented quickly. In addition, the waiting time of the patients was measured using the PC's time to Import, 2011 14.5 minutes and the average patient waiting time, KIOSK and later use CD Autoloader 2012 average patient wait time of 8.25 minutes, 43% of the existing average waiting time was 5.25 minutes to reduce. However, KIOSK case of a patient in a way that directly Import latency time was soon. Import of three ways: in terms of efficiency and excellent CD Autoloader way, the patient waiting time in terms of ease of use and KIOSK was excellent. In addition, with the introduction of CD Autoloader with KIOSK Joint of the items waiting time of patients and patient satisfaction rating is considered to be a major contribution.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2022

Background: To determine the reasons and factors that contribute to the cancellations of shoulder surgeries at a tertiary referral center and to analyze the characteristics of these patients. Methods: Patients scheduled for shoulder surgery from June 2017 to July 2019 were allocated to a surgery group (n=224) or a cancellation group (n=96). These groups were compared with respect to patient characteristics, types of surgery, distance from patient's home to the hospital, traveling time to the hospital, and waiting period before surgery. Reasons for cancellation and responses were acquired using a telephone interview and were subsequently analyzed. Results: The cancellation group was older, had a less frequent history of trauma, and had a lower proportion of patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair than the surgery group (p=0.009, p=0.014, and p=0.017, respectively). In addition, mean distance from the patients' homes to the hospital and preoperative waiting time were both longer in the cancellation group (p=0.001 and p<0.01, respectively). The most common reason given for cancellation was another medical condition (28.1%). Conclusions: Older age, need for arthroscopic rotator cuff repair surgery, longer distance from the patient's home to the hospital, and longer waiting period significantly increased the chance of cancellation. The main reason for canceling surgery was a concurrent medical condition. Therefore, identification of other medical conditions in advance is an important consideration when surgeons recommend shoulder surgery to patients. Surgeons should also consider patient's age, type of surgery, distance from the hospital, and waiting time when assessing the possibility of surgery cancellation.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.83-92
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• 2024

It is a common observation that whenever any patient arrives at the front desk of a hospital, outpatient clinic, or other health-associated centers, they have to first queue up in a line and wait to fill in their registration form to get admitted. The long waiting time without any status updates is the most common complaint, worrying health officials. In this paper, UrNext, a location-aware mobile-based solution using Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) technology, is presented to solve the problem. Recently, a technology-oriented method has been gaining popularity in solving the healthcare sector's problems, namely the Internet of Things (IoT). The implementation of this solution could be explained through a simple example that when a patient arrives at a clinic for her consultation. There, instead of having to wait in long lines, she will be greeted automatically, receive a push notification telling her that she has been admitted along with an estimated waiting time for her consultation session. This will not only provide the patients with a sense of freedom but would also reduce uncertainty levels that are generally observed, thus saving both time and money. This work aimed to improve clinics' quality of services and organize queues and minimize waiting times in clinics, leading to patient comfortability and reducing the burden on nurses and receptionists. The results demonstrated that the presented system was successful in its performance and helped achieve high usability.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.20-30
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• 1996

Background : Theoretically as the waiting-time of patient is estimated in queueing, many men and much money are needed. But being the estimation of patient s waiting-time very important in hospital service, so the continuous monitoring of waiting-time is inevitable. To verify that the estimation of waiting-time using parking time is economical, effective and continuous monitoring method and to develop utilizing the method, this study was done. Method : In parking confirmation office, the personnel of parking office wrote parking confirm time, chart number and whether medical examination and treatment finish or not in parking ticket. The next day the parking tickets were gathered and the above data were input. The input parking data were connected with the hospital outpatient file indexing chart number. Then the patient' s data for department, new patient or not, reservation or not, receipt time and payment time were retrieved. The group for finishing medical treatment were compared with that for not finishing in average time lag between confirmation and out-time for hospital. And In-time for hospital, receipt time, payment and out-time for hospital were also analyzed. Result : Confirming parking ticket, the group for finished medical treatment left hospital after 7 minutes. This result showed that the patient for finished medical treatment left hospital immediately. So parking time was reasonable to estimation of hospital-time was concluded. The time for medical treatment, diagnosis and test was constant for all patients and short for waiting time, Then I concluded that the parking time was reasonable for estimation patient's waiting time. Overall patient's waiting time was 113 minutes and new patient's time was 149 minutes, old patient's times was 109 minutes. Waiting time for reservation patient was 98 minutes and for non reservation patient was 122 minutes. The time from hospital arrival to payment was 50 minutes for the group of reservation patient and 69 minutes for non-reservation group. The time from payment to hospital leaving was 51 minutes and 56 minutes for non reservation group. The short time difference between reserved group and not reserved group from payment to hospital leaving time was due to bottle neck effect. Conclusion : The estimation of patient's waiting time using parking time was reasonable because the possession of car was common and the time for medical treatment was equal and the patient after treatment left hospital immediately. Using this method, timely, fast evaluation and continuous monitoring of the intervention effect were possible.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.202-215
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• 1998

Purpose : To shorten processing time for variety of medical affairs of the patient at the outpatient clinic of a big hospital is very important to qualify medical care of the patient. Therefore, patient's waiting time for drug delivery after doctor's prescription is often utilized as a strong tool to evaluate patient satisfaction with a medical care provided. We performed this study to investigate factors influencing patient satisfaction related with waiting time for drug delivery. Methods : The data were collected from July 21 to August 12, 1998. A total 535 patients or their families who visited outpatient clinics of Inha University Hospital were subjected to evaluate the drug delivery time and the level of their satisfaction related, which were compared with those objectively evaluated by Quality Improvement Team. The reliability of the scale was tested with Cronbach's alpha, and the data were analyzed using frequency, t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis and multiple regression. Results : The mean drug delivery time subjectively evaluated by the patient (16.1 13.0 min) was longer than that objectively evaluated (10.9 7.6 min) by 5.2 min. Drug delivery time objectively evaluated was influenced by the prescription contents, total amount or type of drug dispensed, etc, as expected. The time discrepancy between two evaluations was influenced by several causative factors. One of those proved to be a patient's late response to the information from the pharmacy which the drug is ready to deliver. Interestingly, this discrepancy was found to be more prominent especially when waiting place for drug delivery was not less crowded. Other factors, pharmaceutical counseling at the pharmacy, emotional status or behavior of a patient while he waits for the medicine, were also found to influence the time subjectively evaluated. Regarding the degree of patient satisfaction with the drug delivery, majority of patients accepted drug delivery time with less than 10 min. It was also found to be influenced by emotional status of the patient as well as kindness or activity of pharmaceutical counselor. Conclusion : The results show that, besides prescription contents, behavior pattern or emotional status of a patient, environment of the waiting place, and quality of pharmaceutical counseling at the pharmacy, may influence the patient's subjective evaluation of waiting time for drug delivery and his satisfaction related with the service in the big hospital. In order to improve patient satisfaction related with waiting time for drug delivery, it will be cost effective to qualify pharmaceutical counseling and information system at the drug delivery site or waiting place rather than to shorten the real processing time within the pharmacy.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.74-83
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• 2001

Background : Since a Gamma Knife had been installed on December 1997, 405 patients have been treated until December 1999 at department of neurosurgery of Seoul National University hospital. The authors analyzed results of a work to improve satisfaction of Gamma Knife surgery patients and to reduce hospital length of stay. Methods : To understand main discontent of patients, a pre-survey was performed from October 1998 to December 1999 using a questionnaire. By Analyzing 93 questionnaire received from 234 patients, pain on frame application, explanation before surgery, waiting time before surgery, waiting time before medical procedure were main discontent factor and overall satisfaction ratio was 71.0%. To improve satisfaction ratio, several quality improvement activity works were designed and applied to 123 patients during the period between January 2000 and September 2000. The same questionnaire were analyzed. Works to reduce the patient hospital LOS were devised and applied during the same period. Results : The overall satisfaction ratio of Gamma Knife radiosurgery patients was increased to 83.7%(P=0.10). The main factor to improve satisfaction ratio was to reduce waiting time(P=0.05) and improvement of discomfort during the surgery(P=0.06). The average LOS was reduced from 3.1 to 2.7 days(P=0.003). Conclusion : As a result of quality assurance activities, the overall satisfaction ratio of patients was improved and LOS was reduced. The pain during frame application was remained as a main discontent factor and a further study is required to reduce this pain.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.53-57
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• 2006

Radionuclide therapy has been used for more than 50 years and proved to be a safe and effective modality. However, the patients' right to have the excellent medical service is seriously disturbed by excessive regulations of government institutions such as Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS), Health Insurance Review Agency (HIRA) and Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA). For example, the patients should wait for more than 6 months to have I-131 treatment in many hospitals it is strongly recommended to mitigate the regulations to resonable levels to solve the problems. If HIRA allow the hospitals to charge reasonable rate for radionuclide therapy room, then more hospitals would invest to build the radionuclide therapy rooms and the patients' waiting time would decrease. The waiting time would also decrease, if KINS allow 2 patients to share a radionuclide therapy room. Finally, it is strongly recommended to lower the threshold for approval of new therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals by KFDA, which would allow new effective therapeutic raoiopharmaceuticals to be introduced to clinical practices more easily.