Abstract:
Background: One of critical resource patients invest at a health care facility is time to wait for
services and time to get the services. Prolonged waiting time is a barrier to access and frequent
visits to health care facilities, disappoints patients and discourages health care consumption. In
Ethiopia, however, there is no valid and reliable study on patient waiting time to help determine if
the problem exists, where the problem exists, how serious problems are and what to do about them.
Objectives: The main objective of the study is to find out the current average waiting time spent by
a patient in Addis Ababa Health Centers and assess level and determinants of patient satisfaction.
Methods: The study was an institution based cross-sectional study. A time sheet was adopted at six
service points to record patient waiting time and exit interviews were administered to 422 patients
attending outpatient services from March 28-Dec. 9, 2011. Qualitative data was collected from
staffs to capture views of the health care providers on the research topic.
Results: The finding of this study showed mean complete patient waiting time of 101 minutes (S.D
= 49 minutes) at primary health care facilities of Addis Ababa. The mean total cycle time (from
patient arrival to departure) is 156 minutes (S.D.=66 minutes).The finding revealed 52.6% patients
as fully satisfied for satisfaction domains measured immediately after care (exit interview) with
significant association to patient opinion on overall length of waiting time, availability of drug and
with waiting time at registration, card and triage service points with 95% CI AOR of 0.07 (0.02,
0.21), 0.2 (0.05, 0.81) and 7.52 (1.01, 55,91) respectively.
Conclusion and Recommendation: This study in general discovered waiting time as being too
long and, concomitantly, patient satisfaction is not as high as similar studies in Ethiopia and
elsewhere. Corresponding to that, the study recommends improving the existing long waiting time
and low level of patient satisfaction by addressing human, material, infrastructural and policy
factors associated to the problem.
........................................... Thesis available at ACIPH Library