Why Make Patients Wait?
We recently consolidated laboratory workstations, creating a second order entry station in the process. This opens the possibility of bypassing the normal patient queue of order entry before collecting samples and drawing some patients as soon as they walk in. Will this work, I wonder?
Let's say a patient arrives at the door with a requisition in hand. We know what the patient needs to have drawn and that an ABN isn't needed. Currently, we ask the patient to be seated in the waiting area, enter the orders into the information system, generate labels and walk to the waiting area to call the patient back to the laboratory. But why? We could say, "I can draw your blood right now."
Why do we make patients wait?
We think there are many reasons for doing so: we need to identify the patient the "right" way, we will mislabel tubes if we change our process, extra labels are too expensive, some patients will be upset if they are treated differently, and (when all else fails) it isn't that long a wait. After all, they can always go down the road to the big medical center and wait 3 hours. Everybody knows that!
The real reason is simple: we make them wait because it's convenient for us.
If we treat all outpatients the same, we have one process. There are fewer steps to remember, making it easier for a colleague to help when it gets busy. And, theoretically, less chance for serious error. It's the same reason McDonald's restaurants make you stop at the first window to pay. It's a rule existing simply for their convenience, not to enhance your experience. You don't want McDonald's to charge you incorrectly, do you?
Making the patient wait for the sake of protocol devalues his or her time. A paradigm of customer service includes what the customer expects. For an outpatient, the shortest possible wait is a reasonable expectation. We all have things to do.