For the weeks following, you will develop a proposal to conduct a research project to resolve an issue; it might be something

your supervisor or the CEO would ask you to look into and come up with a recommendation next month. Identify a problem and write a short description of the issue, and describing what type of research (performance, evaluation, descriptive, predictive) would need to be performed. You will need to get approval from your instructor to ensure the topic is appropriate and not to complex for the assignment. (Review the Conducting Research learning object to help you through this process). At least 3 academic references are expected, cited in-text and referenced in proper APA format. Problem statement: The purpose of this study is to determine the cause of the increased wait period of patients waiting in the reception area of a medical office and the decreased amount of time being spent with the physician. Managing patient flow efficiently in an outpatient clinic has always been problem in the health care field. An efficient clinic is one that can handle a high volume of patients with low patient waiting time (Kolker & Story, 2011). Research question: 1. What are the causes of increased wait period of patients and decreased time spent with physicians. 2. What improvements can be made so that waiting rooms are not overcrowded all the time. Conceptualizing: Data that needs to be collected for this issue deals with the average number of patients being seen by an outpatient clinic, the average time being spent in the waiting room and the average time being spent with a physician. This research will mainly be based on evaluation of data

collected and also a bit predictive in order to recommend various strategies to help alleviate the situation. For example, one way to decrease patients waiting time is to maintain the right number of staff. A study done in a neurosurgery department found that by increasing the number of junior doctors, more patients can be seen at a time thus decreasing patients wait times (Alpaslan, 2010). Furthermore, one clinic has found that by using a kiosk to check in patients, the clinic gained an hour of patient time (Waxer, 2010). Reference: Alpaslan, F. (2010). Reduction of patient waiting time by simulations in ondokuz mayis university medical faculty, department of neurosurgery. Scientific Research and Essays, 6(5), 1063-1070. Retrieved from http://www.academicjournals.org/sre/pdf/ pdf2011/4Mar/Alpaslan et al.pdf Kolker, A., & Story, P. (2011). Management engineering for effective healthcare delivery.

Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Retrieved from http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book//9781609608729 Waxer, C. (2010, August 31). How kiosks cut patient wait times at walk- in clinics. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/607963/ How_Kiosks_Cut_Patient_Wait_Times_at_Walk_in_Clinics