The Relationship of Patient Satisfaction with the Waiting Time and Fast Track Services: Structural Equation Modelling Test

Abstract

One of the factors that demand hospital services is the speed of service starting from patient registration to the process of patient discharge from the hospital after receiving service 1. The imbalance between the speed of patient arrival and the ability of service personnel to provide services is one of the factors that cause queues. The most common problem that occurs in hospitals is the length of the queue for services. One of the most common efforts is the application of a queue number (ticketing system) but it also does not break up long and long queues 2. Shortening waiting time is one of the most relevant criteria, not only in terms of increasing patient satisfaction but also improving hospital quality, efficiency and capacity planning 3. Methods: The method which is used in this research was a survey of 294 outpatient in interne polyclinic RS X Padang City with a cross-sectional design. Simple random sampling has been chosen to collect the respondent. Hypothesis testing was performed using Structural Equation Model with SMARTPLS 3.3.3. Result: The waiting time construct consists of fairness of queue system, needed of the patient in a queue system, use of information technology in queue system meanwhile, fast track services measure by the need in hospital, the users of the service, and is the service is going well. General Satisfaction is measured by general satisfaction in doctor service, queue system and fast track service. The Hypothesis tested in table 2 show that has t-value from bootstrapping all the result has value above than t-table value (1,96) for significant level (α) 5%. It is mean that fast track and waiting time has a strong influence on satisfaction in general and all the hypothesis was accepted. This research also tests the accuracy prediction model which shows in the R-square value. R-square shows that fast track was affected 30,1% in waiting time meanwhile general satisfaction were only affected 7,9% with fast track and general satisfaction. Conclusion: The research has shown that fast track and waiting time has a direct impact on patient satisfaction in the whole service. There is around 70% of other factors were affected the fast track rather than waiting time and more than 90% of other factors were affected the general satisfaction of patients while receiving the service that not mentioned in this research. The others factors that should be tested in future research was the satisfaction factor with the doctor services and nursing service.