Hassan Shabbir, Ahmed Raza, Tahir Mumtaz Malik, Saad Ullah Abbasi, Umar Fayyaz Ghani, Anjum Qadri.
Better Communication Reduces patients’ Complaints in OPDs where There are Prolonged Waiting Time.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;13(1):329-34.

Aim: To demonstrate that better communication with patients about working of OPD decreases complaints. Place and duration of study: Surgical OPD of Combined Military Hospital, Multan from 1st January 2018 to 30th June 2018. Study Design: Prospective observational study Material: A total of 436 patients were included. All adult conscious non-emergency patients reporting to Surgical OPD were included. All patients with ages less than 18 years, unconscious patients and critical patients reporting directly to OPD instead of the emergency department were excluded. Patients were divided into two groups; group A comprised of patients reporting to OPD on Tuesdays and group B comprised of those coming to OPD on Thursday. After being seen by the surgeon, they were again distributed a questionnaire for obtaining feedback. All these tasks were being done during the working hours of the OPD. The patients, thus, had to wait for some period of time before being seen by the surgeon. Both groups were compared regarding complaints for waiting time, age and sex. Likert scale from 1 to 5 was used to assess the outcome. Result:There were 292(67%) males and 144(33%) females. Ages of the patients ranged from 20 years to 64 years. Group A patients had 8 complaints whereas the Group B patients had 27 complaints. The complaints mainly pertained to waiting time, patients seen out of turn, lesser number of surgeons and halts in OPD due to surgeons’ engagement in OPD procedures like change of dressings, removal of stitches. Feedback questionnaires revealed 87% satisfaction level in Group A and 57% satisfaction level in Group B patients. Conclusion: Better communication in any form, like handouts for the patients explaining the working and constraints of general surgery OPD increases confidence among the patients; facilitates smooth running of OPD; better surgeon-patient relation; and decreased complaints against the institution. Hospitals should encourage better communication with the patients and their attendants in a proactive manner, for better satisfaction .

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