Pilot study: determinants of dispensing medications that affect patients’ waiting time

Waiting time is something that patients have to go through to receive care, consultations and medications in every healthcare department. Our study focuses more on the waiting time of patients in out-patient pharmacy department. Our study was done in Hospital Queen Elizabeth, Kota Kinabalu in Sabah during the third week of October 2016 (17/10/2016-21/10/2016). Our study subject was the patients that receive medication in out-patient department. 21 patients were selected randomly every day for us to track down the time from the beginning until they receive their medications. The focus of this study is to observe and study the determinants of dispensing medications that affect patients’ waiting time in out-patient department in Hospital Queen Elizabeth. From what we have observed, we found that the determinants that affect patients’ waiting time consist of amount of prescriptions dispensed per day, the amount of drugs dispensed for each prescription, number of personnel, number of clinics and number of counters. We tabulated the data we collected by using Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 23 to complete our task. As a result, we have discussed regarding the processes of dispensing medications and other determinants that affect patients’ waiting time. We have also suggested ways to improve waiting time of patients so that it can be used for future references.