RESUMO
Long patient waiting time is a common problem in hospitals and urban health centers in Ecuador and elsewhere. Besides being a leading cause of patient dissatisfaction with health service quality, it is often related to short doctor-patient contact time that in turn can seriously reduce the technical quality of care. This articule describes a quality improvement effort undertaken by the staff of the La Troncal Health Center in Ecuador, with the assistance of the quality assurance project of the University Research Corporation and the Ecuadorian Minister of Health. Data on patient waiting times was collected and analyzed, and solutions were devised and implemented using quality assurance techniques. As a result, the average patient's total waiting time fell from 116 minutes per visit to 66, and his or her contact time with health center staff members increased from 11 minutes to 16. It appears that the methods and techniques applied have potencial for use elsewhere, because they can be applied easily by health personnel, and their cost of implementation is relatively low
Assuntos
Qualidade da Assistência à Saúde/tendências , Assistência Ambulatorial/organização & administração , /organização & administração , EquadorRESUMO
Long patient waiting time is a common problem in hospitals and urban health centers in Ecuador and elsewhere. Besides being a leading cause of patient dissatisfaction with health service quality, it is often related to short doctor-patient contact time that in turn can seriously reduce the technical quality of care. This articule describes a quality improvement effort undertaken by the staff of the La Troncal Health Center in Ecuador, with the assistance of the quality assurance project of the University Research Corporation and the Ecuadorian Minister of Health. Data on patient waiting times was collected and analyzed, and solutions were devised and implemented using quality assurance techniques. As a result, the average patient's total waiting time fell from 116 minutes per visit to 66, and his or her contact time with health center staff members increased from 11 minutes to 16. It appears that the methods and techniques applied have potencial for use elsewhere, because they can be applied easily by health personnel, and their cost of implementation is relatively low
This article will also be published in Spanish in the Bol. Oficina Sanit. Panam. Vol. 121(2), July 1996
Assuntos
Qualidade da Assistência à Saúde , Assistência Ambulatorial , EquadorRESUMO
La formación social ecuatoriana, históricamente se ha asentado en un andamiaje o entretejido de diferentes modos de producción que van desde las Economías Campesinas Comunales actulamente existentes hasta las modernas formas capitalistas de producción que son las dominantes para la época actual y que cada vez adquieren mayor dimensión, y que, van diseñando con mejor exactitud el modelo o formación social capitalista, si bien con características particulares, dadas las singulares condiciones que le ha tocado vivir a nuestro país en sus diferenes fases del desarrollo histórico.En efecto,coexisten formaciones sociales no capitalistas junto a modernas formas capitalistas de producción. El carácter peculiar de nuestra formación social, es el de ser ciertamente capitalista
