Needs Analysis for Pediatric Triage

For the Needs Analysis, I looked into a problem at a pediatric clinic of slow wait time. The pediatrician was concerned that her patients had to wait too long before being seen, and she wondered if there was anything her staff could do to improve this wait time. To do this, I observed the office on two different days to ensure I wasn’t just there on a busy day and also asked questions to senior office staff members.

I went into this project thinking that there would be a problem to solve, but that’s not always the case. It can be discouraging to tell someone that a problem isn’t viable to solve. However, these problems are best for creative thinking. The question goes from “How can we make something bad into something good?” to “How can we make something that’s already fine even better?”

Since the staff was already keeping up with patients to the best of their abilities, I asked new questions, such as “Are patients satisfied?” through a patient satisfaction survey. These questions helped me find ways to improve on office practices.