Best And Worst Times For A Hospital Visit

Almost everyone has experienced a hospital visit with either a long wait time or a short one and the amount of time you wait for treatment has many variables but according to a study from the American Heart Association, it might just be the time of day. While going to the hospital isn't something that is generally planned, the time of day and year may affect patient wait time. In the study, the American Heart Association took a look at heart attack patients that arrived at a hospital and recorded their wait time. Keep in mind that the American Heart Associate's guidelines recommend the administering of an angioplasty within 90 minutes or less.

The study found that patients who arrive at a hospital on weekends, weeknights or holidays have a 13 percent greater risk of a fatal outcome than those who arrive during regular business hours. While no one can predict when a heart attack will happen, patients who arrived during those times had an average wait of 72 minutes compared to 56 minutes during regular business hours. However, both time frames are within the guidelines of the angioplasty procedure. And of course, patients should not wait to go to the hospital for any situation even if the emergency is during the night or on the weekend.

But what causes the increased wait time? Some suggest that more people are prone to injury from things like burning their hand while cooking dinner during the weeknight, experiencing food poising during holiday meals and perhaps sports related injuries on the weekends. These types of incidents can 'clog' up the waiting room and increase wait time. But there are other factors that can lead to unnecessary wait time like paperwork, filing and other administrative duties.

As medical science advances and society moves more and more towards technology driven lifestyles, hospitals have the potential to reduce wait times by fixing outdated work procedures. Output management can help reduce paperwork and processing forms which can account for a large portion of time when a patient is in the waiting room. With the reduction of manual paper forms and mundane tasks, hospitals can treat patients sooner, no matter if it's a weeknight, weekend or holiday.