Costa Rica News – The Alajuela Hospital has mismanaged its resources to the extent that 16,000 appointments were wasted in just the last six months. This is happening at the same time patients are being given appointments for 2026.
An audit of the last six months highlighted appointment slots left empty, missed consultations, unused offices and agenda hours, and other serious failures in the management.
730 appointments were cancelled in two of the most critical fields, orthopedics and ophthalmology, due to medical course, resident exams and ordinary staff vacations. That means 730 people who have already been waiting years now have to reschedule and the first open spots are in 2022, 1,200 days after their appointments were supposed to be.
It was found that most offices are used less than three hours a day and 11 offices are never used.
There is an overflow in the emergency service area where patients are waiting up to 8 days for a bed.
An “accompaniment process” has been set up to work alongside the hospital in correcting these failures. It will be in place through 2020 to improve the quality of care for patients in the province. The hope is that by the end of 2020 the hospital will be ranked among the best in the country.
