ArticleBMC health services research2022
Using a human-centered, mixed methods approach to understand the patient waiting experience and its impact on medically underserved Populations.
Article in BMC health services research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Designing equitable telehealth solutions for outpatient surgical care in a safety-net population: a human-centered design approach.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Exploring the Determinants of Patient Experiences Using the Digital Topic Modeling Approach.Journal of nursing management · 2025Article
- An eHealth intervention for patients with a low socioeconomic position during their waiting period preceding cardiac rehabilitation: a randomized feasibility study.European heart journal. Digital health · 2025Article
- Psychometric Properties Assessment and Determinants of the Health Services OutPatient Experience (HSOPE) Among Chinese Outpatients: A Cross-Sectional Study.Patient preference and adherence · 2025Article
- Household healthcare seeking patterns for emergent ill-health in Migori, Western Kenya.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Beyond the Queue: Exploring Waiting Practices in the Stories of Patients With Breast Cancer.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024Article
- Opportunities to Apply Human-centered Design in Health Care With Artificial Intelligence-based Screening for Diabetic Retinopathy.International ophthalmology clinics · 2024Review
- Using Architectural Mapping to Understand Behavior and Space Utilization in a Surgical Waiting Room of a Safety Net Hospital.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo use a mixed methods approach to investigate the patient waiting experience for a medically underserved population at an outpatient surgical clinic.
methodsWe used lean methodology to perform 96 time-tracked observations of the patient journey in clinic, documenting the duration of activities from arrival to departure. We also used human-centered design (HCD) to perform and analyze 43 semi-structured interviews to understand patients' unmet needs.
resultsPatients spent an average of 68.5% of their total clinic visit waiting to be seen. While the average visit was 95.8 minutes, over a quarter of visits (27%) were over 2 hours. Patients waited an average of 24.4 minutes in the waiting room and 41.2 minutes in the exam room; and only spent 19.7% of their visit with an attending provider and 11.8% with a medical assistant. Interviews revealed that patients arrive to their visit already frustrated due to difficulties related to scheduling and attending their appointment. This is exacerbated during the visit due to long wait times, perceived information opacity, and an uncomfortable waiting room, resulting in frustration and anxiety.
conclusionsWhile time tracking demonstrated that patients spend a majority of their visit waiting to be seen, HCD revealed that patient frustrations span the waiting experience from accessing the appointment to visit completion. These combined findings are crucial for intervention design and implementation for medically underserved populations to improve the quality and experience with healthcare and also address system inefficiencies such as long wait times.
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