Abstract
BACKGROUND: One of the most substantial factors affecting patient satisfaction in the Obstetrics-Gynecology and Children's Hospital is the wait time in the emergency room. OBJECTIVE: We retrospectively studied the waiting periods of patients visiting the emergency room patients in Bolu Izzet Baysal Obstetrics-Gynecology and Children's hospital. METHOD: Using an automated documentation system for each patient that recorded the season in which the patients consulted the emergency room, the month, day, time, examination time, hospitalization decision time, the hospitalization clinic following the decision to hospitalize, and the time to hospitalization, we retrospectively studied the waiting periods of emergency room patients in Bolu Ýzzet Baysal Obstetrics-Gynecology and Children's Hospital. RESULTS: A total of 15,004 patients who consulted the hospital emergency room between November 24, 2009, and August 25, 2011, and who were hospitalized in a clinic were included in this study. The highest frequency of emergency room patient visits occurred during the summer season (28.1%), in the month of July (10.2%), on Mondays (16.1%), and between 8 and 11 AM (22.1%; p < 0.05). The emergency room wait time of patients consulting the pediatric clinic was (55 ± 67 min), which was significantly shorter than the wait time of patients consulting other clinics (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The majority of patients who were hospitalized in any clinic through the emergency room consulted the hospital during the daytime hours. The time to hospitalization for the admitted patients was within an acceptable time frame. We believe that conducting comprehensive research to determine whether it is possible to reduce wait times even further to increase patient satisfaction will be instructive.