Optimizing access to pediatric specialty care

Abstract

The science of optimizing access and wait times is still evolving. Many confounding factors influence the capacity of health systems to offer appointments in a timely manner. Timely access to care is a determinant of medical outcomes and patient satisfaction. The purpose of this project was to develop a standardized approach for the structure of centralized services based on the patient scheduling needs for individual specialty clinics. This process improvement project utilized quantitative data to measure changes in scheduled appointment utilization, within three pediatric specialty clinics after 45 days of implementationThe science of optimizing access and wait times is still evolving. Many confounding factors influence the capacity of health systems to offer appointments in a timely manner. Timely access to care is a determinant of medical outcomes and patient satisfaction. The purpose of this project was to develop a standardized approach for the structure of centralized services based on the patient scheduling needs for individual specialty clinics. This process improvement project utilized quantitative data to measure changes in scheduled appointment utilization, within three pediatric specialty clinics after 45 days of implementation. The implementation included adjustments in workflow and scheduling protocols; and recommendations for staffing models, performance metrics, and operational dashboards. An average 12.3% increase in scheduled appointment utilization was realized within the three clinics. The results highlight the benefits for an optimized scheduling practice to increase scheduled appointment utilization which may increase the timeliness of access to specialty care for patients and families. . The implementation included adjustments in workflow and scheduling protocols; and recommendations for staffing models, performance metrics, and operational dashboards. An average 12.3% increase in scheduled appointment utilization was realized within the three clinics. The results highlight the benefits for an optimized scheduling practice to increase scheduled appointment utilization which may increase the timeliness of access to specialty care for patients and families.