Persuasive Technology for Reducing Waiting and Service Cost: A Case Study of Nigeria Federal Medical Centers

Long waiting time required before a patient sees a doctor and associated cost is one of the major problems faced by many hospitals especially those in the developing countries. According to a recent study, 97% of patients are frustrated by wait times at the doctor's office. Patients being kept on hold for so long before receiving medical services could result in waiting costs for them. Similarly, providing surplus doctors could result in excessive costs to the hospital. This paper discusses how persuasive technology can be used to reduce the overall cost often associated with long wait times to see a doctor by reducing patient's perceived wait times and determined an optimal number of doctors required to provide optimal service to patients (at reduce time and cost). To achieve this, we examined and modelled the queuing characteristics, the waiting and service costs and optimal server level for all the twenty-two (22) Federal Medical Centers (FMCs) in Nigeria. Next, we examined the potential of using persuasive messaging system to reduce waiting cost by reducing the perceived waiting time and persuading patients against leaving the hospital without seeing a doctor. The results of the study show that the average queue length, waiting cost of patients and the cost of service at the FMC could be reduced at an optimal server level for a minimum total cost.