醫院環境中的背景音樂對於民眾等候時間知覺的影響

The Influence of Background Music on Wait-Time Perception of People in Medical Condition

在醫院環境中，病患或陪同者在等待批價或領藥時，若主觀的等候時間越久，越可能產生不悅，進而降低醫療品質。從許多文獻可以發現，音樂可同時影響人的心理及生理，背景音樂則為一種管理者操弄顧客等候時間知覺的方式，本文比較環境無音樂、CD播放、與現場演奏時，環境個案等候時間知覺是否有差異；並探討個案對播放或演奏之曲目的喜愛度、熟悉度，是否會對等候時間知覺造成影響。本研究的實驗分三場次收案，地點於新北市某私立大學醫學院教室，共118人，讓個案等候20分鐘，其中第一組為環境無音樂（N=35）、第二組為環境中有CD播放（N=41）、第三組為環境中有現場演奏（N=42）。研究結果發現，等候時間知覺平均值由大至小為第一組1,437秒，第二組1,171秒，第三組991秒，發現候診環境中無論是CD播放或現場演奏，其等候時間知覺均小於實際等候時間，且三組在統計上呈顯著差異（sig=0.000）；並發現當受測者對背景音樂越喜歡時，其主觀的等候時間知覺越短，但熟悉度與等候時間知覺無顯著相關。是以本文建議，未來在醫院環境中，可以藉由播放背景音樂來縮短病患主觀的等候時間知覺，而在同樣曲目、樂器的狀態下，現場演奏又會比CD播放更能縮短病患的等候時間知覺，間接提高民眾就醫品質。

In a hospital environment, when patients and accompanying persons are waiting, if they perceived the wait time runs too long, they are likely to feel unpleasant, and thus affect their perception of quality of healthcare negatively. Many studies indicated that the use of music can influence people’s mind and body simultaneously, and background music may be one way for managers to manipulate customers’ wait-time perception. We compared three music scenarios --no background music, CD music, live music-- and observed their differences in terms of individual case’s wait-time perception. In addition, the influence of participants’ fondness of and familiarity with the music on the wait-time perception was investigated. The researchers of this study collected data in three sessions; all were conducted at the medical school of a private university in New Taipei City. For a total of 11 8 participants, each were kept waiting for 20 minutes. Group 1 was assigned to a no-music environment (N=35 ); group 2 was in a CD-music environment (N=41 ); group 3 was treated to live music performance (N=42). The resulting average perceived wait-time lengths are: 1,437 seconds for Group 1, 1,171 seconds for Group 2, and 991 seconds for Group 3. That is, for patients who are kept waiting in both CD-music and live-music surroundings, their perceived wait time lengths are shorter than the actual waiting time (1200 seconds) (sig=0.000). We have further discovered that if the participant likes the music more, his/her subjective perceived wait-time was shorter than the actual time. Therefore we suggest that background music should be played in hospitals to shorten patients’ subjective perceived waiting time. Moreover, live performance can shorten patients’ perceived waiting time, as well as improving people’s perception of healthcare quality.