Abstract of Dissertation

Keyword : Outpatients Department; Turnaround Time; Process Mapping

Background : The Columbia Asia hospital, Salt Lake outpatient clinic is confronted with long waiting time for the patients, overtime for doctors and nurses during clinic sessions, non-availability of OPD rooms and peak workloads for its counter personnel. This case study focuses on understanding the current process flow in the outpatient clinic, analyzing the waiting time, finding out the reasons while trying to propose solutions for the same. A quantitative analysis to study the Turnaround Time of consultation in the Outpatients department of Columbia Asia Hospital, Salt Lake, Kolkata. To study the process flow and calculate patient waiting time at different touch points. The study will adopt a descriptive, observational and ex post facto case study approach. Study Design-An Observational cross sectional A non-probability purposive sampling technique would be followed. Study location: Columbia Asia Hospital, Salt Lake, Kolkata Inclusion Criteria: -All OPD patients coming for consultation in the hospital during the course of the study. Exclusion Criteria: All health checkups, laboratory, x-ray, diagnostic and other over the counter procedure patients Primary Data-The time taken at each and every step is noted with the help of a watch from entry into the OPD till the entry into the consultant’s chamber. Secondary Data- OPD Staff (Interviewing the stakeholders) Standard operating manuals of the hospital. Analysis and Results. The average waiting time of patients was found to be 51.19 mins which was very high compared to standard which was 15 mins. The study determines the reasons of increase in waiting time as delay in reporting of doctors to OPD, rescheduling of the OPD, delay in giving appointments, billing and registration delay, initial assessment and queue management delay. It also comprises of recommendations after studying the reasons for delays to decrease the waiting time.


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