Objectives: We explored the utility of WeChat applet as part of the Outpatient Department (OPD) to provide patients with timely queuing information and compared it with the traditional calling system. Methods: Data for the WeChat calling system was extracted for the period of May 2018 to September 2018. Data for the traditional system was extracted for the same period from the year 2017. We compared the effective patient waiting time and nurse idle time i.e. nonproductive time spent on factors outside of employees’ control with the two systems. We also analyzed the relationship between the length of waiting time and conflicts between doctors and patients. Results: The mean wait time for the traditional calling system was 126 minutes, while the average idle time for nurses was 96 minutes/day. On the other hand, the mean wait time for the WeChat calling system was 33 minutes, and the average idle time for nurses was 72 minutes/day. The incremental profit (cost of traditional calling system – cost of WeChat calling system) achieved from switching systems was 13,879 yuan/month. Behavioral observations showed that wait time (OR=2.745, 95%CI 1.936~3.892 P<0.0001) was a risk factor for staff-patient conflict. Conclusion: The cost of the WeChat calling system was significantly lower than the traditional system. Also, the traditional calling system was time-consuming. Longer waiting time was the main factor affecting OPD quality and caused conflicts between doctors and patients. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.4.4301 How to cite this:Wu D, Cui W, Wang X, Huo Y, Yu G, Chen J. Improvement in outpatient services using the WeChat calling system in the Shanghai Children’s Hospital. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(4):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.4.4301 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
At present, the contradiction between doctors and patients is widespread, especially for children's hospitals, and our research aimed to found the relationship between personality traits (neuroticism dimension, conscientiousness dimension, extroversion dimension, and agreeableness dimension), gender, age, waiting time and doctor-patient contradictions in the outpatient department. Methods NEO Five Factor Inventory was used to carry out NEO Five Personality Test on the parents in the waiting area of outpatient department in Shanghai Children's Hospital. The self-made observation table was used to record whether there were conflicts between parents and health care workers among the whole waiting time and the general information (age, gender) of parents. Logistic regression were used to analyze the relationship between nurturers' personality traits, age, gender, waiting time and the conflicts between parents and health care workers in the outpatient department. Result Among the total of 8 factors, 3 factors were the independent influencing factors of doctorpatient contradiction, that is, the age (OR=1.086, 95% CI 1.016~1.161 P=0.015), waiting time (OR=2.745, 95% CI 1.936~3.892 P<0.0001) and neuroticism (OR=1.108, 95% CI 1.055~1.162 P<0.0001) were the risk factors of doctor-patient contradiction. The result showed that nurturers' personality traits had an influence on the doctor-patient contradictions; high neuroticism nurturers were more likely to have doctor-patient contradictions. All in all, with longer waiting time, the older with higher neurotic scores were more luckily to have conflicts with health care workers. Conclusion The hospital can start from the factors that affect the doctor-patient contradictions to seek benefits and avoid disadvantages, improving the quality and safety of consultation and providing good medical experience for children so as to enhance the overall competitiveness of the hospital.
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