Effective Approach to Reduce Patient Long Queues in Hospital Emergency Department

Abstract

Patient queues in hospital Emergency Departments (EDs) have been a longstanding challenge, leading to compromised patient care quality, increased wait times, and heightened dissatisfaction among both patients and healthcare providers. This abstract presents an effective approach aimed at reducing patient queues in EDs through a multifaceted strategy. This study utilized queuing theory to reduce the long queuing issue using St. Elizabeth hospital in Eastern Cape provinces as a case study. The quantitative methodology is used to obtained information from the respondents in terms of optimizing triage processes using technology-driven assessment tools to swiftly identify and prioritize patients based on the severity of their condition. The results of the findings on shows that utilizing of the conventional queue method in hospitals does not only leads to wasting of patient time but also complicate some patients' medical condition.