SETTING UP WAITING-TIME TARGETS TO SATISFY PATIENTS - AN APPLICATION OF MATHEMATICAL-PROGRAMMING

An out-patient-waiting-time standard has been set up by the government in the Patient's Charter and the standard is supposed to be effective nationwide indiscriminately. This standard is static and does not tak e into account local variations in patient expectations, patient unpun ctualities in keeping their appointments, changing demand, and resourc e (or budget) constraints. Therefore, it is not surprising that many a cute hospitals or Trusts (including the best-known teaching hospitals) have failed to achieve a satisfactory performance against this standa rd. In this paper, we argue that, while regarding this standard as the government's expectation, local out-patient-waiting-time targets coul d be set up more comprehensively each year on the basis of prevailing patient expectations, so that the most cost-effective (or optimal) qua lity is achieved instead of the ideal (or best) quality. We have also developed a mathematical-programming model which can be used to help d etermine the out-patient waiting-time targets in a systematic way, onc e the expected degrees of patient satisfaction are specified. A numeri cal example is provided to illustrate how the model works.