Affiliations 

  • 1 Syarif H Lubis, MD (Madras), MPH (John Hopkins). Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 Jamal H Hashim, BA, MS (Minnesota). Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 3 Selahudden Abd Aziz, Final year medical student, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Family Practitioner, 1986;9(2):41-45.

Abstract

A study was undertaken to evaluate the efficiency of health services at two maternal and child health (MCH) clinics in Kuala Lumpur. The time spent for individual patient care by the clinic staff was used as an indicator for the evaluation. The main objective was to derive a model of ideal operation time for specific patient care activities at a MCH clinic. Primary data was collected through systematic random sampling of patients between 25/7/1985 and 31/7/1985. Secondary data was obtained from available clinic records for July, 1985. The time a patient spent at the clinic and the time she spent at each examination station and waiting between stations was recorded with digital watches. Results show tha patients spent 80% of their time at the clinics waiting. The actual time spent on each patient was found to be considerably less than the ideal time measured under ideal conditions. Various recommendation are presented in the paper to reduce waiting time and extend examination time. The ideal patient capacity for the two clinics was also calculated.