The “5S” approach to improve a working environment can reduce waiting time: Findings from hospitals in Northern Tanzania

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess causal relations between the implementation of the 5S approach and the reduction of patients’ waiting time at out patient departments (OPDs) of hospitals in Tanzania. Design/methodology/approach – Patients’ waiting time was measured under the cluster randomized control trial (c-RCT). In all, 16 hospitals were chosen and divided into treatment and control groups using block randomization. Before the intervention, a baseline study was conducted at OPDs in all 16 hospitals. After one year of the intervention, the end-line study was carried out in both the groups. A comparison of the average waiting time reduction and Difference-in-Difference (DID) analysis was carried out to see the effect of the 5S approach on the reduction of patients’ waiting time. Findings – Statistical significance in reduction of patients’ waiting time was seen in the medical records sections (p=0.002) and consultation rooms (p=0.020) in the intervention group. The same trend was also se...