Measurement of the Relationship between Patient Wait Time and Patient Satisfaction at each Stage of an Appointment

Abstract

Patient satisfaction is associated with self-reported treatment compliance and patient outcomes. One factor that influences patient satisfaction is wait time– how long a patient waits during a visit to a health care facility. Here, we measured the time spent at each component of a patient's visit to a cancer treatment facility and its correlation with patient satisfaction. Results suggest that reducing the total time of a patient's visit to a health care facility will improve not only patient satisfaction with how long the entire visit takes, but also satisfaction with other aspects of the visit not including waiting. Moreover, results suggest that the time spent in the examination room waiting for the doctor is highly associated with patient satisfaction with overall time spent during the entire visit. In short, our results suggest several ways to improve patient satisfaction at a cancer treatment facility. The implication is that such improvements will lead to greater treatment compliance and ultimately to better patient outcomes.