Factors affecting patients’ waiting time at the Radiology Department

Abstract

Aim of Study: To identify the extent and causes for prolonged patient waiting times and overcrowding at the Radiology Department (RD) in Aseer Central Hospital, Abha City, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study design was followed. It included 107 staff members at the RD in Aseer Central Hospital. A data collection tool was designed by the researchers and used for data collection. Results: 51.4% of patients were referred to RD from the outpatient clinics, 27.3% were referred from the ED, while 21.3% were inpatients. Monday and Tuesday were the most overcrowded days at the RD (33.3% and 20.8%, respectively). Almost half of the patients (47%) stayed in the waiting area for 1-3 hours. Patient waiting times differed significantly according to their days of received radiologic services, with the longest waiting time being on Wednesday (44.4%, p=0.021), and according to patients provided radiologic services. The most frequently stated causes by the radiology staff for overcrowding at the RD were the “huge number of patients received directly from the community who did not go via a primary health care center”; “the large number of non-emergency patients” and the “socially recommended cases sent to RD via the ED” (45.8%, 32.7% and 29.9%, respectively). Conclusions: Patient waiting times are unduly prolonged. It is mostly 1-3 hours. The main bulk of overcrowding comes from patients referred from the outpatient clinics. The main causes for overcrowding are the excessive number of non-emergency, unscheduled patients, and the socially recommended cases, in addition to the shortage of specialist radiology physicians. Recommendations: There is a need to implement an elaborate system to organize unscheduled patients, who may crowd out other emergency patients and to allocate a special radiology section for patients referred from the ED. To increase the number of serving specialist radiologists at the RD of Aseer Central Hospital. To enforce provided radiology services at primary care centers in Aseer Region. Key Words: Waiting time, Radiology Department, Patient referrals