Author(s)

Charles A. Villanueva, Mohammed Almadani^*, Fahad Mahnashi, Saad Alyhya, Osama Alshreef

College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Aim: To investigate the waiting times in the emergency department of both private and public hospitals. Methods: The study employs theoretical, qualitative, and quantitative approaches to come up with conclusions that are reliable. A total of 473 participants who had a direct interaction with the emergency department were asked to provide data on the waiting time, the kind of hospital they went to, the symptoms they had, and their gender for evaluation purposes. Common symptoms identified to the patients visiting the emergency department are related to head and neck, chest, abdominal pains, genitals, limbs, and back. It was found that more patients visited public hospitals over private hospitals. Additionally, more patients had symptoms related to abdominal than any other of the common symptoms and more males than females participated in the research. Data recording is done in tables using MS Excel and data presented through analysis using bar graphs for comparative purposes. Conclusion: Based on the results of the research, it was concluded that the efficiency of the emergency department is below the recommended standards. Finally, the recommendations made from the research findings included an audit of the emergency departments, increasing the staff in the department, and more research should be conducted throughout the country to come up with a more reliable record that is more inclusive.

Waiting Time, Emergency Departments, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Villanueva, C. , Almadani, M. , Mahnashi, F. , Alyhya, S. and Alshreef, O. (2017) Waiting Time in Emergency Department in Riyadh 2017. Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 5, 55-60. doi: 10.4236/jbm.2017.53006.