Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common disease. Patients with CKD usually have many other diseases, and complications are more common than general patients. The nephrologist must deal with these problems. It may take a long time to advise these patients in CKD clinic.

Objective: To identify the number of apparent problems in CKD patients, the duration of the nephrologist visits for these patients, and the relationship between the number of problems and the duration of doctor visit.

Materials and Methods: The study was a descriptive observational cohort study. Patients with CKD aged 18 years and over were enrolled at the CKD clinic of Thammasat University Hospital. The patient’s information including any current active problems and the time spent during each visit were recorded by data collectors. The data was collected for a period of six months between September 1, 2015 and February 28, 2016.

Results: Five hundred forty-eight patients were included. Nine physicians were observed by the data collectors in each patient visit. The average number of problems was 2.10. The three most common problems were hypoalbuminemia, proteinuria, and edema. The average time spent in each visit was 8.4 minutes, 14.56 minutes for new cases, and 7.81 minutes for old cases. Physicians spent 5.39 minutes for each visit to CKD patients with no apparent problems and spent more time for additional problems.

Conclusion: CKD patients had at least two problems, and each visit lasted an average of 8.40 minutes. When the number of problems increased, the physician required longer time to solve the problems.

Keywords: Active problem, Chronic kidney disease, Outpatient department, Spending time, Nephrology

DOI: doi.org/10.35755/jmedassocthai.2021.02.12154

Received 12 December 2018 | Revised 1 September 2020 | Accepted 9 October 2020