Our results showed that 41% of respondents expressed agreement on satisfaction in the waiting room and 30% strongly agreed. Mean waiting time expected by the patient was 94.85 min. Patients’ estimation of the mean reasonable waiting time before seeing a doctor was 65.42 min, with a mean of 78 min for the actual waiting time. Twenty-four percent of respondents described their perception of the waiting time as being short, 43.5% as acceptable, and 32.4% as long. Indeed, the average waiting time was considered as very short, short and acceptable until a mean of 63 min. Interestingly, 53.2% reported that they did not receive information from caregivers about the waiting time. The model used for this study (annex 1) identified four significant predictors of the wait perception in decreasing order: appropriate assessment of emergency level by caregivers; feeling of being forgotten; respect of privacy; and the exact waiting time. Of note, 23% (115/499) of respondents reported to have felt forgotten. Regarding the appropriate assessment of emergency level by caregivers, only 4.5% said that they disagreed (‘strongly disagree’ and ‘disagree’). Similarly, 8.2% disagreed with the organization of the emergency unit; 67.5% were interested to wait elsewhere, and 84.3% said that their privacy was respected (‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’).
Appropriate assessment of emergency level by caregivers
Accurate assessment of the emergency level by caregivers is the strongest influencer of the wait perception. Reasons for attending EDs are linked, but not only to the perception of situation urgency. Some patients in Nederland, Australia also mentioned that they went to the ED to be able to see a doctor and have any tests or X-rays all done in the same place or because they did not want to wait for an appointment with their general practitioner [31, 32]. Furthermore, nurses and doctors may disagree about the patient’s triage category [33]. The discrepancy in severity assessment between caregivers and patients has also been highlighted in the research of Toloo et al. [17]. In their study, they reported that almost 50% of patients had the feeling of being undertriaged and 20% expected a lower priority than the actual triage category. The correlation between the perceived priority and actual triage category was weak. In a patient-centred approach, caregivers should be encouraged to explain clearly to patients the reasons for their classification at a given level and why other patients may be possibly seen before them by medical staff. Therefore, it would be important to create different support materials that allow the patient to understand the reasons for his/her assigned triage category. In addition, more consideration should perhaps be given to the perceived urgency by patients as Toloo et al. [17] showed that this is associated with an expected higher priority triage.
Feeling of having been forgotten
The feeling of having been forgotten is identified as the second strongest influencing factor of the wait perception. Although this criteria was not retrieved in our literature review on the topic, we found one article in a related domain by Gilmartin et al. [34] who reported that patients felt abandoned during preoperative wait in one care centre. In this study, the main reasons of feeling abandoned was the lack of information about the delay, the process, and poor interaction with caregivers. In our setting, when a patient is seated in the waiting room, s/he usually has to wait until a nurse comes to take him/her to an examination room. During this entire time, the patient is isolated and often lacks information and is therefore unsure whether s/he has been forgotten by staff.
Link between the wait perception and actual time
The statistical analysis showed that the actual waiting time influences significantly its perception and that patients are ready to wait up to 1 h on average before considering the wait as excessive. This finding is supported by Sanober et al. [35] showing that patients were willing to wait up to 2 h before leaving the ED without being seen. Another study [36] demonstrated that patients felt that they should be seen within 1 h on average, but expected to wait 2.1 h. After 2 h, people wanted to leave the ED before seeing a medical doctor.
Eighty percent of patients visiting our emergency unit were classified as level 3 and must be seen by a doctor within a delay of 120 min according to the Swiss Emergency Triage Scale. Our observations highlighted that we must either reduce this waiting time or act on it by changing the wait perception. For example, it is known that the perception of waiting time, efficiency and the clinical skills of the emergency doctor is improved with periodic personal interaction and the provision of clinically-based information [37].
Link between the confirmation and perceived time
As described by Thompson et al. [9, 13], we showed that the wait perception was correlated with the discrepancy between the reality and the expectation of the wait. A gap between performance and expectations generates a ‘disconfirmation’. Moreover, it is known that if a patient expects to wait longer than the actual wait, s/he is more satisfied, independent of the length of the waiting time [5]. Antinides et al. [10] showed that waiting time ‘fillers’, such as repeated information about wait duration, length of the queue, and music positively influence the time perception. This should also encourage caregivers to provide an overestimation of waiting time. This mechanism has been observed in other areas, such as waiting for transportation, where providing real-time information has demonstrated a positive influence on time perception. In our emergency unit, nurses give a personal estimate of the waiting time to at least 36% of patients.
Respect of privacy
Respect of privacy was the least significant predictor. The patients in our units wait in a semi-closed room with a television, bottles of water and a choice of different newspapers. Nurses come regularly to the waiting room to check the pain scale and sometimes provide information on an estimate of waiting time. The design of the waiting environment can be a significant factor in improving patient satisfaction. In a questionnaire on patients’ privacy and satisfaction in an urban university-based hospital ED [38], 75% agreed and strongly agreed that privacy was very important for their emergency care. Following these results, an intervention including redesigning the ED environment, process management and staff education was implemented and showed significant improvements with patient perceptions on increased privacy and satisfaction. In our study, 84% of patients agreed and strongly agreed that their privacy was respected. Questions regarding discomfort showed that most patients (> 60%) strongly disagreed/disagreed and considered that their comfort was disrupted by other patients, by the coming and going of caregivers, or by the lack of distractions.
Study limitations
Our study has some limitations. The questionnaire was developed specifically for this study as no existing questionnaire in the literature allowed us to evaluate the perception of waiting time. As the questionnaire validity and reliability have not been tested, our results cannot be generalized without additional evaluation. The questionnaire was only available in French and excluded patients included those who were in too much pain, unable to read French, with ocular problems or who did not want to complete it. It is also possible that the nurses did not give the questionnaire during busy shifts. In addition, as the questionnaires were distributed by nurses, the social desirability effect could have had an impact on the patient’s decision to participate and on their responses [39]. Another limitation is that the analysis was only in one unit of our ED. No response rate was calculated. Due to financial constraints, the questionnaire could only be distributed during a three-month period and this did not allow to reach the 700 participants targeted with the sample size calculation based on the rule of event per variable of 50. However, we did reach the minimal recommended sample size of 500 participants when using logistic regression for observational studies [40]. Of note, our evaluation took place at the end of the waiting process and did not take into account the quality of care dispensed. As this can influence overall patient satisfaction at the end of the entire process, it can be considered as a limitation.