• Dan Wu, Wenbin Cui, Xiulian Wang, Yanyan Huo, Guangjun Yu, and Jinjin Chen.
• Dan Wu, Shanghai Children's Hospital, Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200062, P.R. China.
• Pak J Med Sci. 2021 Jul 1; 37 (4): 993-1000.

ObjectivesWe explored the utility of WeChat applet as part of the Outpatient Department (OPD) to provide patients with timely queuing information and compared it with the traditional calling system.MethodsData for the WeChat calling system was extracted for the period of May 2018 to September 2018. Data for the traditional system was extracted for the same period from the year 2017. We compared the effective patient waiting time and nurse idle time i.e. nonproductive time spent on factors outside of employees' control with the two systems. We also analyzed the relationship between the length of waiting time and conflicts between doctors and patients.ResultsThe mean wait time for the traditional calling system was 126 minutes, while the average idle time for nurses was 96 minutes/day. On the other hand, the mean wait time for the WeChat calling system was 33 minutes, and the average idle time for nurses was 72 minutes/day. The incremental profit (cost of traditional calling system - cost of WeChat calling system) achieved from switching systems was 13,879 yuan/month. Behavioral observations showed that wait time (OR=2.745, 95%CI 1.936~3.892 P<0.0001) was a risk factor for staff-patient conflict.ConclusionThe cost of the WeChat calling system was significantly lower than the traditional system. Also, the traditional calling system was time-consuming. Longer waiting time was the main factor affecting OPD quality and caused conflicts between doctors and patients.Copyright: © Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences.

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