McMillan J R, Younger M S, DeWine L C
Health Care Manage Rev. 1986 Summer;11(3):21-7. doi: 10.1097/00004010-198601130-00006.
For most people, waiting is inherently dissatisfying and emergency department patients are no exception. Most patients and people accompanying the patient find the treatment waiting time in emergency medical care facilities to be a source of great dissatisfaction. The dissatisfaction is compounded in many cases by the anxiety of all associated with the patient and the discomfort or pain the patient feels. Consequently it was not surprising to find in this investigation that waiting time for treatment and treatment cost were major causes of consumer dissatisfaction. Satisfaction of emergency department patients decreased as the medical need became less urgent. This finding should be of considerable concern to hospital administrators. With the trend toward new forms of health care delivery systems such as "emergicenters" and the increase in the number of physicians per capita, the emergency department will no longer be the most attractive or the only alternative available to the patients who have a nonemergency medical need. For emergency departments to remain profitable, it will be more important than ever before to meet the needs and expectations of their current and potential users. This can be accomplished by a program designed to reduce cost and waiting time and improve communication, and by other programs to educate the user so that the user's expectations more closely conform with what is actually needed or can be economically provided.
对大多数人来说，等待本身就令人不满，急诊科患者也不例外。大多数患者及其陪同人员都认为急诊医疗设施中的治疗等待时间是极大不满的根源。在许多情况下，这种不满因与患者相关的所有人的焦虑以及患者所感受到的不适或疼痛而加剧。因此，在本次调查中发现治疗等待时间和治疗费用是导致消费者不满的主要原因也就不足为奇了。随着医疗需求紧迫性的降低，急诊科患者的满意度也随之下降。这一发现应引起医院管理人员的高度关注。随着诸如“急诊中心”等新型医疗服务提供系统的兴起以及人均医生数量的增加，急诊科将不再是有非紧急医疗需求患者最具吸引力或唯一的选择。为了使急诊科保持盈利，满足当前和潜在用户的需求及期望将比以往任何时候都更为重要。这可以通过旨在降低成本和等待时间、改善沟通的项目，以及其他教育用户的项目来实现，以便用户的期望更符合实际需求或经济上能够提供的服务。
