Outpatient clinic: where is the delay?
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.
Patel
H R H
HR
Department of Urology and Minimal Access Surgery, Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, Highgate Hill, London N19 5NF, UK.
Luxman
C N
CN
Bailey
T S
TS
Brunning
J D M
JD
Zemmel
D
D
Morrell
L K
LK
Nathan
M S
MS
Miller
R A
RA
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*