Evaluating the Average Waiting Time for an Emergency Medicine Specialist Visit in an Emergency Department: A Case Study

Background: One of the dimensions of healthcare quality is providing care without delay, in a timely manner and without a long waiting time. The aim of this study was evaluating the average waiting time for an emergency medicine specialist visit in an emergency department. Methods: The present study is an applied cross-sectional study. The study population was traffic accident victim's records referred to the emergency department of a public hospital in Tehran city. Samples were calculated using the Cochran sample size formula of 114 people. Sampling was done as an available sampling. Data were collected by reviewing patients' records using a researcher-made checklist. Data were analyzed using descriptive methods and central indicators such as mean for describing research variables using SPSS 18 software. Results: In this study, the average waiting time for patients referred to the emergency department of this hospital was 25.73 minutes. The highest average waiting time for an emergency medicine specialist was 50.71 minutes for a triage level of 5, and the lowest average waiting time for the triage level was 1, with an average of 12.80 minutes. Conclusion: Providing national standard indicator for the average visit time of an emergency medicine specialist to determine patients' assignment and initiate treatment are required to be formulated and evaluated continuously.