Arrival time pattern and waiting time distribution of patients in the emergency outpatient department of a tertiary level health care institution of North India (original) (raw)

the ED is overcrowded. [1] Overcrowding can result in delayed treatment, long patient waiting time and stay, overburdened working staff, patient elopement, high medical error rate, low productivity and poor patient outcomes. [2] Overcrowding is often seen as a by-product of improper patient fl ow. [3] An effi cient patient fl ow system serves critical patient quickly minimizing unnecessary delay in treatment. On the other hand, an ineffi cient patient fl ow leads to the problem of long and outstanding queues. Effi cient patient fl ow depends on reduced waiting time and smooth outfl ow of patients. A patient arriving in the ED encounters repeated waits as he/she progresses in different stages, which may last for hours or even days. Waiting time has been often cited as the most important cause of patients' dissatisfaction in the ED. Cooke cited reduction of "waits" as the most important area for improvement in ED. [4] Delays in the process have been associated with adverse outcome and increased violence in EDs. Waiting time in turn