BACKGROUND Outpatient department has become an essential part of the hospital due to the fact that it is the first step of the treatment system and point of contact between a hospital and community. Waiting time refers to the time a patient waits in the clinic being seen by one of the clinical medical staff. Objectives-1. To calculate the patient waiting and consultation time for each specialty. 2. To analyse the cause and effect for the delay. 3. To recommend appropriate suggestions to optimize the waiting time in OPD. MATERIALS AND METHODS A study was carried out using descriptive study design in Yenepoya Medical College Hospital, Mangalore, Karnataka over a period of 3 months and a total of 350 patients were included in this study from various departments such as Medicine, Surgery,