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| Operations Success |  |
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| << back to Operations Success ACCELERATED APPOINTMENT AVAILABILITY In environments where patients have become accustomed to long waits between appointments, not being able to see their own doctors, and dealing with overbooked schedules, PCDC's Accelerated Appointment Availability program area offers a refreshing alternative. This 10- to 12-month Learning Collaborative guides health centers and hospitals through a comprehensive overhaul of their appointment scheduling system.
The organization selects an interdisciplinary team that includes: an organizational leader who can marshal staff time and resources, a physician champion who can drive change among clinical staff, an operations expert who understands systems and processes and a management champion who works effectively with both clinical and support staff. Once the team is selected, members begin a pre-work period. They collect data including future appointment availability, patient cancellation and no-show rates, percentage of times patients see their own providers, patient satisfaction, and patient visit cycle time. Based on the data collected and what the center wants to achieve, participants set goals and objectives. PCDC brings teams from different provider organizations together for a series of Learning Sessions led by Accelerated Appointment Availability innovators. Ideas and information are exchanged during small-group sessions and health center presentations. Learning Sessions are interspersed with Action Periods, in which teams meet weekly to:
Throughout the Collaborative, expert faculty and coaches are available to advise and instruct, lead small groups, facilitate collaborative learning and evaluate health center progress. These experts also review and provide feedback on the team's monthly reports and maintain an Accelerated Appointment Availability listserv. CLIENT TESTIMONIES "The people at PCDC did a terrific job of introducing new concepts in healthcare delivery to our clinic. They were both professional and skillful in coaching us to implement changes that have been effective, sustainable, and beneficial to our patients. For example, in the patient centered scheduling collaborative, we learned how to reduce patient no-show rates and fully utilize (even increase) our provider capacity. This has resulted in improved access to care for our patients as well as more orderly and efficient clinic operations! The PCDC coaches also have helped us to learn important techniques and skills that are generally applicable to our work as leaders in a health care delivery environment, such as how to motivate staff, build effective teams, and successfully organize and monitor improvement projects. The work we did with PCDC was not always easy, but the benefits for our clinic made the effort worthwhile!"
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