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= __**Study on Outpatients’ Waiting Time in Kuala Lumpur Hospital.**__ = **The Perception Of Public towards Government Hospital – Ampang**

= = = __ **Satisfaction Level of Outpatients Waiting Time: A Case Study at General Outpatient Department in HKL** __ =

**1.0 INTRODUCTION**

 * 1.1 Background of the Study**

Nowadays a lot of government and private hospitals were built. In Malaysia, the medical services were started more than few decades ago as part of the pre- hospital care services. The government of Malaysia, through the Ministry of Health, is the main provider of the service. Despite the negative perception, public hospitals are actually better than private establishments. This is because most of the public hospitals in the country adhere strictly to the high standards imposed by the Malaysian Society for Quality in Health (MSQH).

Despite the negative perception, public hospitals are actually better than private establishments. This is because most of the public hospitals in the country adhere strictly to the high standards imposed by the Malaysian Society for Quality in Health (MSQH). The previous Health Minister, Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek gave an assurance that patients in accredited hospitals would receive the best possible care in a safe environment at the minimum cost. Dr Chua said these hospitals had put in place the high standards set by the MSQH, with the focus on clinical areas. Eighty-five of the 125 hospitals in the country have gone through the MSQH accreditation training up to June and 52 of them have achieved certification, including Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

Nowadays a lot of government and private hospitals were built. Hospitals are in highly competitive market, and consumers now expect services that extend beyond quality patient care. The satisfaction reign in healthcare been shifted to customer perceptions. Moreover, how customers perceived are depended on their past healthcare experience, interpretation of their current experiences and the experiences from the family and friends.

In Malaysia, the medical services were started more than few decades ago as part of the pre-hospital care services. The government of Malaysia, through the Ministry of Health, is the main provider of the service. The public hospitals, like Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL), run their own medical services independently from the Ministry of Health. Kuala Lumpur Hospital is one of the public hospitals in Malaysia that cater the needs of the general public. It comprises of the general outpatient clinics, the specialist clinics, surgical and inpatient facilities.

The Outpatient Department is the oldest clinic and it is situated in the main building of the Kuala Lumpur Hospital. The clinic was known as the Outpatient Department before January 2002. The name was changed to Klinik Kesihatan Kuala Lumpur after the management was taken over by the Health Department of the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (JKWPKL). Since January 2006 the management of the clinic was taken over by Hospital Kuala Lumpur and the name was changed again to Outpatient Department Hospital Kuala Lumpur.

The clinic started off as a general Outpatient Clinic but has expanded its scope and services for better specialised patient health care. The services provided are as follows: 1. Out patient care 2. Family Medicine Specialist Clinics 3. COPD & Asthma Clinic and Resource Center 4. Diabetic Eye Screening Clinic 5. Diabetic Footcare and Counselling Clinic 6. Parliament Clinic 7. Medical Examinations Unit (MEO) 8. HIV Clinic 9. Examination of Haj pilgrims

Patients’ waiting time is defined as “the length of time from when the patient entered the outpatient clinic to the time the patient actually received his or her prescription”.


 * 1.2 Statement of the Problem**

Despite the rapid development of medical system in Malaysia, there are still a lot of difficulties for the management in coordinating and monitoring the entire process of the medical services. The worse is lacks of maintenance due to some of the material in Malaysia are old and are inadequately equipped. Normally, the patients who come to Ampang are seeking for treatment at outpatient department, follow up treatment or admission to ward. The equipments and manpower provided are more than enough for the hospital until recently the high demand and drastically increase in the number of patients caused congestion and slow moving of the medical processes


 * Various of procedures at outpatient department may lead to excessive patient's time.
 * From the statistic (Health Facts 2010, Hospital Kuala Lumpur) it shows that the average of outpatient attendances at General Outpatient Department is nearly thousand of people a day. This could lead to long patient waiting time.
 * Excessive patient's waiting time will influence public perception on the quality of the service.
 * Despite the rapid development of medical system in Malaysia, there are still a lot of difficulties for the management in coordinating and monitoring the entire process of the medical services.
 * The equipments and manpower provided are more than enough for the hospital until recently the high demand and drastically increase in the number of patients caused congestion and slow moving of the medical processes.


 * 1.3 Purpose of the Study**

When participants are being asked to talk about the recent inpatient experiences during in hospital, the first ideas come to their mind are quality of care, the numbers, attitudes of staff as well as services and cleanliness. In response to this concern, the purpose of this study is to find out the actual public perception towards Kuala Lumpur Hospital whereby this study and the result will paint a clear picture of how consumers perceived towards patient’s waiting time at HKL General Outpatient Department.

**1.4 Objectives of the Research**

To study the patient’s waiting time in the outpatient department, by identifying the contributing factors that affect waiting time and recommend ways of minimizing the delay.

The objectives of this study are:

1. To recognize general perception towards the service performance of Kuala Lumpur Hospital 2. To identify the satisfaction level when people come to Kuala Lumpur Hospital. 3. To suggest ways to improve the services of outpatient department at Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

**1.5 Research Questions** This study will provide answers to the following questions: 1. What are the general perceptions towards the waiting time of Kuala Lumpur Hospital? 2. How the patience or public response when they come to Kuala Lumpur Hospital looking for treatment? 3. How to reduce the waiting time and managing the overload of patients?

**1.6 Significance of the Study** Although currently there are some rumors about bad quality of servicesand long waiting time in Kuala Lumpur Hospital, there is still no concrete evidence that shows the actual perception of the public towards the hospital. This survey gives the patients the opportunity to anonymously rate Kuala Lumpur Hospital services mainly the waiting time, helping Kuala Lumpur Hospital to identify and handle the issues, guiding the staffs in order to reduce the waiting time improve in order to give better services in the future.


 * 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW **


 * 2.1 Background of Hospital Survey Studies**

Nowadays, a lot of hospital was established. Hospitals are in a highly competitive market, and consumers now expect services that extend beyond quality patient care. In western, like U.S. hospitals, they have always been a subject for surveys on customer satisfaction. Today there's an outsourced service that is changing the answers to two important survey questions: (1) as a patient, would you choose to come back to this hospital? (2) As an employee, is this hospital an employer of choice? (//Kathleen Goolsby//, 2008)

In Malaysian, the inclusion of patients’ opinions in assessments of medical services has gained greater prominence over the past 25 years. In any field, including medicine, customers’ perception on any service provided is of paramount importance and is a necessity for continual service improvement. (Singapore Med J article 2008; 49(8): 631)

Therefore, little is known regarding the public perception towards service care in medical centre. This study was conducted to find out the public’s perception and expectations of the service care main focused on the waiting time in Outpatient Department in one of the government hospital in Malaysia.

The Kuala Lumpur Hospital or commonly known as HKL (Hospital Kuala Lumpur) was a pioneer healthcare institutions existed since year 1870. It is a government tertiary referral hospital, located on 150 acres at centre of city. It has 49 different departments and units. These include the administration & finance department, the pharmaceutical department, training and research, 27 clinical departments and 12 clinical support services.

Hospital Kuala Lumpur is now the largest hospital under the Ministry of health of Malaysia and is considered to be one of the biggest in Asia. HKL has a huge staff of 7 000 workers with almost 100 professions in various fields and disciplines. Out of the total number of staff, there are about 200 consultants and specialists, 500 medical officers and registrars, 10 matrons, 100 sisters (ward managers), 1,600 registered nurses, 750 trained assistant nurses, and 40 trained mid-wives.




 * References**

[] @http://www.hkl.gov.my/content/hfacts/HEALTH%20FACTS%202010.pdf

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