Abstract

Patient waiting time is a significant clinical care issue. This study assessed outpatient waiting times and patient satisfaction in Douala. A cross-sectional study was conducted in randomly selected health facilities in Douala from January 1st to March 31st, 2020. The study included 389 outpatients and 52 healthcare workers. The Chi-square test was used to analyze the association between the quality of care and patients' recommendations of the hospital, with a significance level set at less than 5%. Among the outpatients, the sex ratio was 0.76 (M/F), and the most represented age group was 20-40 years (170, or 43.70%). The mean patient waiting time to reach the hospital was 34.97±32.07 minutes. For registration, the mean waiting time was 47.61±52.05 minutes. The mean waiting time to meet healthcare workers was 84.68±79.68 min. The mean time spent at the outpatient department from registration to consultation was 150±50.02 min (2.5±0.62 h). There was a statistically significant relationship between the quality of healthcare received and the likelihood of patients recommending the hospital to others (p=0.00). Healthcare workers reported seeing between 10-20 patients daily (20, or 38.46%). According to the healthcare workers, the main causes of long patient waiting times were a lack of health workers (44, or 84.6%), lack and poor condition of equipment (36, or 69.23%), and non-compliance of outpatients with appointments or treatment (17, or 32.29%). Patient waiting times to access healthcare were very long. Healthcare providers should adhere to scheduled working hours and be more welcoming to patients.

Key words: Outpatient, Waiting time, Patient satisfaction, quality of care, healthcare workers, Douala.