Wait no more

- Dr Chandil Gunashekara

​A hospital is not a place where an individual might choose to go until there is a compelling reason. And, of course, there is no better compelling reason than one’s health or the heath of the near and the dear one. Hospitals, from across the world, have been making conscious efforts to put patients first to enhance the positive experience of patients when they are in the hospital. This is all the more important in today’s competitive healthcare market where patients (consumers) have wider choices. In the present day context, where medical expertise is being standardised, the service delivery becomes a key factor for the consumer to choose the care provider.

Hospitals are constantly improvising the service delivery systems to enhance customer experience. To differentiate from others, unique ways of customer care delivery have become the norm of the day. Among the many factors that determine the patient experience, waiting time is a key component. Since many years, waiting time has been much popular topic for management students, hospital administrators and operations research experts alike. There appears to be immense scope for improvising the time taken to deliver the service and enhance the patient experience. At the same time, there are many factors that need to be weighed in to make it happen in reality.