| dc.description.abstract | Waiting time continues to be an essential indicator of the quality of health services. A hospital's emergency room is the most important portion of the facility. For patients who
have an immediate need for hospitalization, a delay in admission frequently worsens the
patient's health and may endanger their lives. Overcrowding and long wait times have
been increasingly common in the Emergency Rooms of western countries in recent years.
The large average number of patients seen per day in the Emergency Room presents
unique difficulties for emergency care in developing countries. According to the Quality
Improvement Team reports and exit interviews, patients at the Khunyangu hospital
frequently expressed frustration with the length of their waits in the emergency
department. Objectives of the study were to examine individual factors influencing patient
waiting time at the emergency Department, to assess health facility factors influencing
patient waiting time at the Emergency Department and to assess healthcare workers
factors influencing patient waiting time at the Emergency Department of Khunyangu subcounty
Hospital. Descriptive cross-sectional research design guided the conduct of this
study. Data collection was conducted on 191 patients and healthcare workers over a period
of four weeks using an interviewer administered pretested structured questionnaire. Both
descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. To establish
associations between the independent variable and dependent variables, correlations and
cross tabulations were used. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the
influence of independent variables on the dependent variable. The findings demonstrated
an R-squared value of 0.368. It was observed that there was a weak positive correlation
that was statistically significant (r=.281, N=191, p=.000) between availability of health
care workers at their work stations and waiting time. There was a weak positive correlation
that was also statistically significant (r=.228, N=191, p=.002) between communication on
waiting time in areas where there was no health worker to attend to the patient and the
waiting time. In conclusion, the influences on waiting time are varied and interconnected.
By implementing suitable workflow procedures, enhancing communication, and boosting
equipment/supply availability, many of these problems could be mitigated. The findings
can be utilized to set waiting time guidelines and enhance emergency department waiting.
This study advises that hospital administration address the identified sources of delay in
order to provide patients with timely care. Additionally, health care professionals should
be present at their work stations. Additional research is required to evaluate the emergency
department's impact and utility. | en_US |
