Telemedicine Decreases Waiting Days for Consultation at a Women’s Obesity Clinic 

 

Problem worth solving:

Average appointment waiting days to our clinic was 74 days (national average of 40 days). This affects the timeliness of care provided to patients.

Intervention 1: Increase clinic capacity: increase doctors, introduce video consultation (does not require physical clinic space), revise referral criteria (removes unwarranted referrals)

Intervention 2: Patient selection: appointments only given after completion of required investigations

Results:

Intervention 1: No change in waiting days.

Positive feedback on video consultation from patients.

Intervention 2: Decrease in average waiting days to 34 days (p-value 0.0104)