Developing efficiency standards to improve service in hospital admitting.
The efficiency of admitting services at York Central Hospital in Richmond Hill, ON, Canada, was studied in terms of the timing of admissions. Over a 10-month period, information was collected relating to 1,630 patients' admissions. This information resulted in recommendations allowing the standard of waiting time to be changed and the standard of an admission time to be set. The patient wait time now is to be no longer than 15 minutes with an acceptable level of 80%. The information gathered in a 6-month period during the original 10 months of study showed that the admission process takes no longer than 18 minutes with an acceptable level of 90%.
Admitting Department, Hospital↗