The Relationships among Waiting Time, Patient's Satisfaction, and Revisiting Intention of Outpatients in General Hospital

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the degree of delay in waiting time, and the relationships of waiting time, patient satisfaction, and revisiting intention of outpatient in general hospitals. Methods: The data were collected from June 22 to July 4, 2009. A total of 536 outpatients who visited 21 clinics of a general hospital were subjected to evaluate the waiting time. The survey tools used were the Korea Health Industry Development Institutes (2008) tool for patient satisfaction and Reichheld & Sasser (1990) for revisiting intention. The data were analyzed by SAS version 9.1, descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: The mean patient's waiting time was 28.3±30.7 min, the revealed mean score of patient’s satisfaction was 2.92, and the revisiting intention showed was 4.56. The waiting time was negatively correlated with patient's satisfaction (r=-.10, p<.019). Patient's satisfaction was positively correlated with revisiting intention (r=-.51, p<.001). Conclusion: Waiting time management is an important factor of increasing patient’s satisfaction and revisiting intention in general hospitals. It is mandatory that reservation management systems take into account the patient’s characteristics of visiting outpatient department in order to shorten the real waiting time.