Table 2.
Effect of adding extra staff or using a digital symptom and history-taking app on queue sizes, idle time, and utilization of staff members, and patient waiting time for the triage nurse.
| Scenario | Queue size for triage nurses (number of patients), mean (95% CI) | Queue size for doctors (number of patients), mean (95% CI) | Idle time of triage nurses (minutes), mean (95% CI) | Idle time of doctors (minutes), mean (95% CI) | Utilization of triage nurses (%), median (IQR) | Utilization of doctors (%), median (IQR) | Waiting time for triage nurses (minutes), mean (95% CI) |
| Baseline | 8.47 (8.44-8.49) | 5.44 (5.42-5.46) | 13.99 (13.50-4.50) | 24.10 (23.40-24.80) | 96.9 (92.8-98.9) | 93.3 (86.9-97.1) | 34.05 (33.90- 34.21) |
| Baseline + triage nurse | 3.4 (3.37-3.39) | 9.53 (9.51-9.56) | 61.04 (59.86-62.22) | 13.43 (13.00-13.86) | 40.5 (24.9-62.9) | 96.1 (93.3-98.3) | 13.2 (13.13- 13.28) |
| Baseline + triage nurse + doctor | 3.47 (3.46-3.48) | 5.57 (5.55-5.58) | 59.78 (58.63-60.94) | 40.34 (39.55-41.13) | 47.3 (31.3-66.2) | 90.2 (84.8-94.5) | 13.54 (13.46- 13.62) |
| Baseline + digital tool (assuming minimum time saving) | 6.29 (6.27-6.31) | 6.82 (6.80-6.84) | 22.74 (22.05-23.43) | 19.32 (18.72-19.92) | 94.4 (88.4-98.2) | 94.4 (89.5-97.6) | 25.44 (25.32- 25.56) |
| Baseline + digital tool (assuming maximum time saving) | 3.84 (3.82-3.85) | 8.2 (8.17-8.22) | 41.73 (40.80-42.6) | 17.04 (16.54-17.53) | 88.0 (79.1-94.7) | 95.1 (90.5-97.9) | 15.5 (15.48- 15.64) |