Negative Impacts of Waiting

The Negative Impacts of Waiting

Figure 3. Patient Wait Times. From “How to Treat Patient Wait-Time Woes” by McCormack, M, 2013, (https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/how-to-treat-patient-wait-time-woes/)

The frustration of waiting at GP clinics is well documented, and largely expected as a normal part of going to an appointment. McCormack (2013) finds in her article “How To Treat Patient Wait-Time Woes” that 97% of patients surveyed feel frustrated by waits, even though 45% of their waits were for less the 15 minutes. This tells us that patients become frustrated by waits of any length, even in a space where wait times are usually expected. Lessening the wait time will not necessarily reduce frustration, so it is therefore important to look at that waiting experience itself.

In several different health agencies and research articles, wait time is so common and expected that it is a key measure of quality used in research (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2019) ( National Health Service, 2019)(Caggiano et al, 2015)(Camacho et al, 2006)(Teunis et al, 2015). However, Chu et al. (2019) finds that there is not necessarily a correlation in the research literature between patient’s wait time and overall care experience. They found through their own study that a patients willingness to wait, and a reduction of the frustration associated with waiting can be improved by three factors: “1) proactively informing patients of delays, 2) explicitly apologizing for delays, and 3) providing opportunities for diversion”. Beyond simple frustration and perception of service of care, waiting can also have a bigger impact on a person’s health, especially when looked at through the lens of salutogenics. The theory of salutogenesis, begun by Aaron Antonovsky in 1996, asked the question, ‘what are the origins of health?” and discusses that health is more than just a lack of illness, but a spectrum along the ease/dis-ease continuum. A key ingredient in Salutogenic health is a person’s sense of coherence. Antonovsky defines a sense of coherence as a ‘dynamic feeling of confidence that one’s internal and external environments are predictable and that there is a high probability that things will work out as well as can reasonably be expected’ (Antonovsky, 1979, p. 123). When a person has a feeling of control over their world and circumstances this reinforces their Sense of Coherence, and is reinforces further

Figure 4. Impact on patient frustrations. From “How to Treat Patient Wait-Time Woes” by McCormack, M, 2013, Retreived from (https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/how-to-treatpatient-wait-time-woes/)

when additional resources to draw upon in times of stress. Simply put, it better enables someone to comprehend and cope with the stress and difficulties of everyday life. Similarly, when expectations are not met, and there is a feeling of lack of control over one’s situation; one’s sense of coherence can be damaged, impacting their health. This lack of control is familiar to anyone who has had to wait for an unknown amount of time with no idea as to why. This idea of control, or lack thereof, supports the findings by Chu et al. (2019) that promptly informing patients of delays can reduce stress and frustration.