ABSTRACT
The scheduling processes followed currently do not take into consideration the needs of the patients and their families. The challenge lies in adopting a scheduling method that can help in decreasing waiting time. Another negative factor is that scheduling has no room for emergency or differentiation based on the severity of patients’ problems. Every patient is treated as a warm body, and nobody knows what they really need until they visit the clinic. We cannot make the family understand the acuity both because they do not realize the severity of patient’s condition and because we have an incomplete picture since they are not prepared to understand the process and system constraints of their local doctor’s office and/or hospitals. This situation results in patients being angry, frustrated, and insulted when their concerns are not given immediate assessment and attention. Essentially, for a better scheduling design, we need a triage systems in which acuity and expectations are preset and the patients feel they are treated with dignity and respect. This can help also to decrease anxiety and fear.
