Impact of Waiting Time on Patients Satisfaction in Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Osun State

The research focused on impact of waiting time on patients satisfaction in Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife. The study assessed the level of waiting time, assessed the level of patients satisfaction and identify impact of factors contributing to prolonged waiting times in OAUTHC, Ile-Ife, Osun state.Convenience sampling technique were adopted in selecting One hundred (100) patients in which 20 patients were selected each in five different clinics (General outpatient department clinic, cardiology clinic, ophthalmology clinic, medical outpatient clinic and surgical outpatient clinic) in Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Osun state. However, 100 patients were observed and interviewed, giving 100% response rate. The respondent's opinion was elicited using an indirect observation and structured interview questions administered by the researcher. The result was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), employing methods such as descriptive statistics i.e simple percentage, mean, standard deviation, pie charts and inferential statistics such as regression analysis, with a significance level of 5%. Additionally, the relative mean was calculated to determine the leading factors for each objective.The findings of this study revealed that 71% of the patient experience average waiting time. Conversely, 70% of the patient are moderately satisfied with waiting time in OAUTHC. Queuing theory was used to calculate the patient waiting time and the result revealed that MOP clinic is the most congested clinic with the highest waiting time with 241 minutes (wq) as average time a patient spends waiting in the queue before being served. It was shown that patients spent 0-20 minutes at each unit of the clinic which include HIM unit, Nursing unit and Consulting rooms. However patients spent longer time waiting to be called to the consulting rooms at an average time of 41-60minutes. The result however shows that there is significant relationship between waiting time and patients satisfaction with the p-value of 0.000. The study concluded that longer waiting times led to increased dissatisfaction among patients, affecting their overall perception of the quality of care received. This dissatisfaction was as a result of Overcrowding and workload (39%), not enough staffs (12%), bad EHR network (7%), and so on. It is therefore recommended that there should be expansion of consulting rooms, Improvement in appointment scheduling system, increase staffing levels, enhance Communication and transparency, flexible clinic hours and shift management, and target patient flow improvements Keywords: Waiting Time, Patients Satisfaction