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. 2002 Dec;95(12):604-5.
doi: 10.1258/jrsm.95.12.604.

Outpatient clinic: where is the delay?

H R H Patel  1 , C N Luxman, T S Bailey, J D M Brunning, D Zemmel, L K Morrell, M S Nathan, R A Miller
Affiliations

Outpatient clinic: where is the delay?

H R H Patel et al. J R Soc Med. 2002 Dec.

Abstract

In outpatient clinics, consultation times are often eroded by extraneous activities. We measured the components of each outpatient episode in 167 patients attending a general urology follow-up clinic. 41% of time in the clinic was spent away from the patient-administration 17%, disturbances 15%, finding results 9%. The inefficiencies had changed little since a study in the same setting thirteen years earlier. Since then, parallel nurse-practitioner-run clinics have been introduced in the hope of giving consultants longer with the patient; however, time with each patient is now 4.8 min compared with a previous 7.6 min. The most easily addressed inefficiencies are those relating to missing information, such as radiology reports.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proportion of time accounted for by disturbances. formula image Nurses; ▪ juniors; □ telephone; formula image others
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Efficiency in the NHS.
    Fox R. Fox R. J R Soc Med. 2002 Dec;95(12):579. doi: 10.1177/014107680209501201. J R Soc Med. 2002. PMID: 12461141 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

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