WAITING TIME IN AN URBAN ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT - A WAY TOIMPROVE IT

Objective-To determine how the introduction of a new small team consul tation system could reduce the average waiting time of patients in the busy accident and emergency (A&E) department of a Hong Kong hospital. Methods-1264 and 1319 A&E cases, respectively, were sampled during th e four months before and after the introduction of a new small team co nsultation system. The data collected included the average and the ran ge of the patients' waiting time as well as the number of patients in different triage categories and their average waiting time. Also recor ded in the study were the average daily attendance, the admission rate , the number of complaints, and patient reattendance rate. Results-Bef ore and after the introduction of the new system, the average waiting time of the patients was 35.19 minutes and 22.04 minutes respectively (range 0 to 134.0 minutes and 0 to 106.3 minutes, respectively). The d ifference of 13.15 minutes in the average waiting time was clinically and statistically significant (t = 2.81; P = 0.004). There were no sig nificant changes in other variables affecting the patients' waiting ti me and the quality of service. Conclusions-A Small team consultation s ystem can reduce the average waiting time of patients without compromi sing the existing quality of service.