Waiting Time to Triage and Associated Factors among Patients Presenting To the Emergency Department of Jimma Medical Center, Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2022

Abstract

Introduction: Waiting time to triage has been defined as the time that a patient spends in triage from arrival at the registration desk until the time she/he leaves the emergency triage room and is directed to their patient care areas. An increase in wait time to triage is one of the major reasons for the crowd in emergency departments resulting in a delay in treatment. There was prolonged waiting time in Emergency Department. A decrease in wait time for triage brings about on-time treatment and saves hospital resources. Objective: To assess waiting time to triage and associated factors among patients presenting to the emergency department of Jimma medical center, Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2022. Methods: Facility-based cross-sectional study using quantitative method was conducted at Jimma University Medical Center from May 1 to June 30, 2022. A total of 422 selected patients visiting the emergency department were included. The study participants were selected using Simple random sampling techniques till the required sample size was achieved. Data was collected using a pretested questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were computed to present the data and describe the study participants. Logistic regression analysis was done to identify factors associated with Waiting Time to Triage. Results: The whole waiting time to be triaged for the patients spent at the emergency department was a minimum of 4min and a maximum of 9.07 min respectively ±0.07std.deviation with a median of 7 minutes. Of the total respondents, 5.9% of them waited to be triaged for 11- 15minutes and 2.6% of them waited for 16-30 minutes considered a long waiting time to triage. The time of receiving an information sheet from the card room (AOR= 0.043, 95% CI=0.021, 0.090, the distance between the card room and triage room (AOR=2.908, 95%CI: 1.003, 8.430), the width of the room (AOR=0.451, 95%CI=0.230, 0.884), and the priority of patient categorization (AOR=0.215, 95%CI=0.067, 0.694) were statistically significant with waiting time to triage. Conclusion: The maximum waiting time to be triaged at the emergency department was long and more than five of the patients visited an emergency department. The time of receiving an information sheet from the card room, the distance between the card room and triage room, the width of the room, and the priority of patient categorization were statistically associated with waiting time to triage