The Effect of Waiting Time on Patient Perceptions of Care Quality

ABSTRACT

This research explores the effect of waiting time on patient satisfaction in the context of rural healthcare clinics, with data from a three-year time period. Patient satisfaction was measured by overall quality of care, likelihood of recommending the care provider, and likelihood of recommending the practice. The authors' analysis shows that waiting times impact patient satisfaction, with differences being more pronounced by gender and clinic type. A deeper analysis using ordinal logistic regression and additional time-related variables reveals some interesting results. For example, in this setting, only when waiting time was 45 minutes or greater was there an effect on overall patient satisfaction. Male patients tended to be more satisfied if kept abreast of delays. Female patients were more tolerant of delays, but receiving delay information did not link to satisfaction. Finally, patients who were highly satisfied with the time spent with their care provider were 94 percent likely to refer the practice to others. However, patients who were very dissatisfied with the time spent with the care provider were 81 percent likely to not recommend the care provider. Understanding what aspects of a patient's experience drive care quality and patient satisfaction is useful to healthcare managers who operate with increasingly limited resources.

KEYWORDS:

• Healthcare quality
• medical clinics
• ordinal logistic regression
• patient experience
• waiting time

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to UP Health System - Portage and Press Ganey for providing them with access to their survey results and allowing them to extend the work already completed by Press Ganey. The authors would like to thank the following individuals at UP Health System - Portage: James Bogan, Market Regional President; Elizabeth MacInnes, Vice President-Quality Management, and Lisa Kaarto.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Quinton J. Nottingham

Quinton J. Nottingham is Associate Professor of Business Information Technology in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. His research interests involve applied statistics, big data analytics, supply chain disruptions, and healthcare analytics. He has published in the Information Technology & Management, Statistics in Medicine, Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, Journal of Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, International Journal of Production Research, and Computers and Industrial Engineering and a number of other publications and conferences proceedings. Dr. Nottingham has co-authored one textbook, Discovering Business Statistics, with Hawkes Learning, Inc. He has served as a consultant with a variety of organizations, including Adapt Partners, Universal Fiber Systems, and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory/OAO Corporation. Dr. Nottingham can be reached via email at [email protected].

Dana M. Johnson

Dana M. Johnson, Ph.D. is Professor of Supply Chain and Engineering Management in the School of Business and Economics and an affiliated professor of Mechanical Engineering/Engineering Mechanics at Michigan Technological University. Her current research focus is modeling performance measurement in healthcare operations and optimization of biomass supply chains for alternative fuels. She has published in the Quality Management Journal, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, Biomass and Bioenergy, Journal of Environmental Management, and a number of other publications and conference proceedings. She is a CSQP, CQE, CMQ/OE, CQA, CSSGB, CPA, and CMA. Johnson can be reached by email [email protected].

Roberta S. Russell

Roberta S. (Robin) Russell is Professor and Head of the Business Information Technology Department at Virginia Tech. She is published in the top academic journals of her field including Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences, International Journal of Production Research, IIE Transactions, IEEE Transactions, Annals of Operations Research and others. In 2016, she and Professor Johnson received the Gyrna Award from ASQ for their healthcare research appearing in QMJ. Dr. Russell is co-author of two textbooks, Operations and Supply Chain Management in its 9th edition with Wiley, and Service Operations and Management in its 2nd edition with Prentice-Hall. She has consulted with numerous corporations, including DuPont, GE, IBM, AT&T, Xaloy and Courtaulds, and enjoys working with both students and industry. Dr. Russell's email is [email protected].