Innovation and Best Practices in Health Care Scheduling

Lisa Brandenburg, Patricia Gabow, Glenn Steele, John Toussaint, Bernard J. Tyson
2015 NAM Perspectives  
BACKGROUND Patient waits have been a long-standing concern in health care. Waits occur throughout the continuum of care and are built into and budgeted for within day-to-day operations. The status quo is changing, however, as patient experience becomes linked to provider payment, efficiency and service become differentiators between hospitals and providers, and patient expectations evolve. While excellent clinical care remains the expectation, health care consumers are now seeking health care
more » ... d supporting systems that are respectful of individuals. In this discussion paper, we describe the important forces shaping wait times throughout health care, the evolving use of techniques and tools from other industries to improve health care access, and the move toward a person-centered model of care. Through our personal experiences leading our respective health care organizations, we have tackled these complex issues, and we present in this paper the lessons we have learned along the way. Notably, we acknowledge that improving access and scheduling requires systems-level transformation and that such transformation can uncover previously unrecognized resources and improve all aspects of care delivery. Wait Times as a Systemic Problem Recent reports of the challenges and consequences faced by patients receiving care in certain Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities have drawn attention to the occurrence of prolonged wait times in health care systems. In a broader context, it is clear that the problem is not exclusive to these VA(VHA) facilities. Similar problems exist throughout U.S. health care; prolonged wait times, scheduling difficulties, and an imbalance of supply and demand are issues in both the public and private health care sectors. Recent VA(VHA) data report that the average wait time for new primary care appointments at VA(VHA) facilities was 42 days (VA, 2014). Although data from the private sector are scarce, a 2013 study of the Massachusetts private sector reported wait times of 50 and 39 days for internal medicine and family practices respectively (MMS, 2013). Similar observations could be made elsewhere, underscoring the fact that while the recent VA(VHA)
doi:10.31478/201502g fatcat:xyahh7lamrefdnlo3sevh6fqdu