Can Operational Transparency Enhance the Perception of Waiting Time? A Case Study from the Healthcare Sector

Patient satisfaction has been a vital organizational metric in medical facilities since it promotes a responsive healthcare system, increases revenue, sustains a higher quality of service, and ensures its continuity. Waiting time for getting health care services is a major metric for patient satisfaction. We hypothesize that technology can be used to enhance people's perception of waiting time. We examine the real-time communication of operational transparency in particular, i.e., the workflow and its current status. Examples of such information include the amount of effort put into delivering a service, the current activities of doctors, the position in the queue, and the priority of the patient case. 21 participants took part in our experiment. The results showed that patients in the group that received real-time operational transparency perceived their waiting time to be shorter than those in the group that did not. Also, participants who received the information perceived stress and frustration to be less. Our study is exploratory and meant to assess the potential of operational transparency in making waiting time better. Future research can assess that on a larger sample, and also assess the side-effects of transparency, e.g., information overload, the need for extra explainability, and stress on medical care personnel.