PROLONGED WAITING TIME OF PATIENTS IN NIGERIAN HOPSPITALS: A CASE STUDY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BENIN TEACHING HOSPITAL (UBTH), BENIN CITY, EDO STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This project work investigated the effect of prolonged waiting time on patients in Nigerian hospitals with special focus on patients of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. The objective of the project was to study the effect of the problem of prolonged waiting time on patients in Nigeria using UBTH as a case study to assess the extent and magnitude of the problem of prolonged waiting time in hospitals and examine the impact of prolonged waiting time on patients’ satisfaction and quality of care in hospitals. A descriptive survey research design was employed for the study using a sample size of 250 patients from a population of about 1000 patients who use the Out-patient consultant clinic of UBTH weekly. The responses to 245 questionnaires were presented using frequency tables, percentages and the null hypotheses (Ho) were tested and statistically analyzed using one sample T-Test at 0.05 level of significance and n-1 degree of freedom. In addition to this, a thematic analysis was used to summarize the answers to interview sessions with 15 respondents to collect answers to the research questions. All the null hypotheses were rejected. The rejection of the hypotheses reflects the position that patients who experienced prolonged waiting times were more likely to report a different level of satisfaction with the care they received, longer waiting times problem is associated with the likelihood of patients seeking alternative healthcare options, such as private healthcare providers or traditional medicine and patients who experience prolonged waiting times in UBTH are likely to perceive the facility is providing low quality of care, discontinue treatment and report a negative impact on their overall quality of life. To effect changes and remedy these issues, the following recommendations are made: that hospital management hire more staff as waiting time will be reduced with a higher staff strength, that the hospital management should employ digitalization to help with some parts of the registration process, ensure proper monitoring of heads of clinic to ensure services are rendered in a timely manner in addition to making the waiting experience less stressful by making the waiting area as comfortable as possible.