See how long patients wait

When you need this

You want to know how long patients spend at the clinic, and where they wait: for the nurse, for the doctor, with the doctor. For example, to plan staff for your busiest day or to see which doctor's patients wait longest.

Steps

1. Go to Reports. Under Visits, open Visit times.
2. Pick a period at the top: Today, This week, This month, Last month or This year, or choose your own dates. The period can be a year at most.
3. Read the cards, top to bottom:
   • The figures at the top: Visits, Average whole visit, Average wait to see a doctor (in red at 30 minutes or more) and Seen by a doctor within 30 min.
   • Where the time goes: each step, Waiting for the nurse, With the nurse, Waiting for the doctor and With the doctor, with its Visits, Average, Half were under and Longest, then the Whole visit.
   • By doctor: each doctor's visits, how long their patients waited to see them, and how long they spent with them.
   • By day of the week: the average whole visit on each day.
   • Longest visits: the ten longest. Click one to open its visit.
4. To keep a copy, press Print.

What you should see

The figures for the visits checked in during the period. A visit's own times are also on its Summary tab, in the Visit times card (see Start a consultation).

How the steps are counted:

• Waiting for the nurse runs from checking in to Start triage (or the nurse's first record).
• With the nurse runs to Send to doctor – or, if the nurse didn't press it, the nurse's last record before the doctor started. A visit only the nurse saw counts until it ended.
• Waiting for the doctor runs from there to the doctor. With no nurse step, it runs from checking in.
• With the doctor starts when the doctor presses Start consultation (or writes the note). What the nurse records – vitals, a complaint, a diagnosis – doesn't count as the doctor's.
• With the doctor ends when the visit ends: when the note is signed, or when the desk checks the patient out. A visit left open and closed by the system overnight isn't counted in it.

If something goes wrong

• "No visits in this period": no patient was checked in during those dates, or they were checked in before Visit times started, so their steps weren't recorded. Pick a later period.
• "Couldn't load the visit times": check your connection and press Try again.
• Visit times isn't on the Reports page: your role can't open it. The business owner has it; ask them to give it to your role.
• A doctor shows as "Doctor not found": that doctor was removed from the clinic. No doctor named is for visits checked in without a doctor.