title: Outpatient clinic: where is the delay?
abstract: In outpatient clinics, consultation times are often eroded by extraneous activities. We measured the components of each outpatient episode in 167 patients attending a general urology follow-up clinic. 41% of time in the clinic was spent away from the patient-administration 17%, disturbances 15%, finding results 9%. The inefficiencies had changed little since a study in the same setting thirteen years earlier. Since then, parallel nurse-practitioner-run clinics have been introduced in the hope of giving consultants longer with the patient; however, time with each patient is now 4.8 min compared with a previous 7.6 min. The most easily addressed inefficiencies are those relating to missing information, such as radiology reports.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Minimal Access Surgery, Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, Highgate Hill, London N19 5NF, UK.
authors.forename: H R H
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: C N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Luxman
authors.forename: T S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: J D M
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Brunning
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zemmel
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Morrell
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Nathan
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D003253:Consultants; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D017748:Time Management; D014573:Urology Department, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*