Hospital Wait Time Analysis – Data-Driven Solutions for Better Patient Experience
A clinic has been receiving numerous complaints about long wait times from patients. Addressing this is critical to improving patient satisfaction, operational efficiency, and overall healthcare delivery.
After conducting a thorough analysis of hospital data, the following key insights and recommendations emerged:
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Overall Wait Time Analysis: The average wait time (38.91) is significant (benchmark in US 30 minutes, p-value: 0.001), highlighting a systemic issue that requires immediate attention. High variability in wait times during peak periods indicates potential bottlenecks in patient flow.
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Time-Based Patterns: Certain days of the week consistently experience longer wait times. Peak hours during the day lead to substantial increases in wait times. 🔹 Recommendations: Adjust staffing levels for high-volume days. Improve appointment scheduling to manage peak hours effectively. Allocate additional resources during busy periods.
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Doctor Type Impact: Wait times differ notably across various doctor types and specialties. 🔹 Recommendations: Address potential understaffing in specific specialties. Develop and implement optimized scheduling algorithms. Redistribute patient loads more evenly among available doctors.
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Financial Class Analysis: Patients from different financial classes experience varying wait times. 🔹 Recommendations: Address inefficiencies in handling certain insurance types. Streamline documentation and check-in processes. Standardize procedures across all financial classes to ensure equity.
- Staffing Optimization: Increase staffing during peak hours and high-demand days.
- Process Improvements: Streamline check-in and patient registration for faster processing.
- Patient Flow Management: Introduce a real-time queue management system.
- Monitoring & Continuous Improvement: Establish real-time wait time monitoring with alert systems.
- Install the required libraries: pip install pandas plotly dash
- Place the dataset (hospital_data_sampleee.xlsx) in the same directory as the code.
- Run the script: python hospital_dashboard.py
- Open the dashboard in your browser at http://127.0.0.1:8050.