An Investigation of the Length of Waiting Time for Services in the Emergency Departments of Teaching Hospitals in Khorramabad

One of the most significant indicators of the evaluation of emergency centers is the calculation of waiting time for patients to receive diagnostic and therapeutic services. The aim of the present study was to determine the waiting time for the provision of services in the emergency departments of teaching hospitals in Khorramabad.

This research was a cross-sectional study conducted in 2017. The study population consisted of all the patients referred to the emergency departments of educational hospitals with an emergency department in Khorramabad. Sampling was randomly carried out through multistage stratified sampling. A valid and reliable checklist was used to collect data, and the data were analyzed by SPSS- 19 by related descriptive and analytical statistical tests.

The three investigated hospitals had a total of 166 emergency beds. 70.6% (573 patients) of the patients had attended the emergency departments with one of their companions, and the greatest frequency of consulation was related to internal medicine specialists (44.5%, 361 people). The gaps between the triage and the first visit, the first visit and the first diagnostic action, sending the first diagnostic action and the medical consultation result, and finally the medical consultation and the outcome of the medical consultation were 8.37 minutes, 31.27 minutes, 9.6 hour, and 7.38 hour respectively.

Regarding the results of this study, it is suggested that the number of emergency department staff and related para-clinical sections increase, thereby reducing the waiting time of people to receive emergency services. Moreover, the authorities are recommended to increase the number of the staff of the night shift in the emergency departments.