Browsing by Author "Wijegunasekara, J.L.H.R."

Filter results by typing the first few letters
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Utilization pattern and patients’ accessibility to the Out Patient Department, District General Hospital, Kalutara
    (Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wijegunasekara, J.L.H.R.; Ferdinando, R.
    BACKGROUND: Out patient department (OPD) is an important wing of a hospital. Assessment of patient information is essential to set priorities, allocate resources and to improve the quality. OBJECTIVES: This paper outlines the demography of patients, their accessibility to the OPD, distribution of patients by time, the waiting time in the OPD, District General Hospital, Kalutara. Methods: Descriptive cross sectional study of three months in a sample of 423 patients of 18-70 years were collected using systematic sampling by two trained assistants with an interviewer administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Average daily attendance was 1154 patients; 53% attended before 10 am; 35% belonged to the age group 31-45 years; two thirds were females; majority had education in the range of “Grade 6-10”; one third had come within “1-5 kilometer”; this was the closest OPD for 77% of patients; majority had spent less than 30 minutes for arrival and bus was the main mode of transport. Majority were registered and seen by a doctor within 30 minutes; consultation time was limited to less than 5 minutes in 78%; 35% had spent 1-3 hours in the dispensary; 50% had taken more than 30 minutes for the investigations and finally 56% had spent 1-3 hours and 22% had spent more than 3 hours in the OPD. CONCLUSIONS: Measures need to be taken to redistribute the staff according to the patient load and to improve waiting time.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Utilization pattern and perception on service quality among patients attending Out Patient Department, District General Hospital, Kalutara.
    (Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wijegunasekara, J.L.H.R.; Ferdinando, R.
    BACKGROUND: Outpatient department (OPD) is an important wing of a hospital. Assessment of patients’ perceived quality is a useful measure in identifying quality gaps to plan corrective actions to improve the quality of service delivery. OBJECTIVES: This paper outlines the distribution of patients during the opening hours and their perception on service quality in the OPD of District General Hospital, Kalutara. METHODS: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted, taking a sample of 423 patients aged 18-70 years, using systematic sampling technique and collecting data with a validated and a culturally adapted interviewer administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Average daily attendance was 1154; 53% attended before 10 am; 30% between 10 am - 2 pm and only 8.8% between 2 pm - 4 pm and 9% between 4pm - 8pm. Patients’ positive perceptions on service quality were as follows; Functional quality 61.2%, Technical quality 83.1%, Environment quality 65.3% and Administrative quality 66.5%.There were significant associations between time of arrival and perception of functional quality (p=0.026), environment quality (p=0.011) and administrative quality (p=0.004). However there is no association between time of arrival and perception of technical quality (p=0.590). CONCLUSIONS: Afternoon and evening sessions are under-utilized. There is considerable scope for the improvement of all four aspects of quality. Perception of quality has been affected by the patients’ time of arrival. Measures are to be taken to improve all aspects of quality and to popularize evening opening hours of the OPD.