Indian Wells Case Study

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Indian Wells Case Study It appears the root cause for sub-optimal patient satisfaction centers around physician access. Access seems limited due to the number of physicians available on a daily basis, availability of preferred physician, restricted access to physicians after hours and possibly the triaging process when patients call during office hours. What I would like to know is how many physicians are full time vs. part time, how are they incentivized, how are appointment times allocated, why don’t they take patient phone calls after hours, are there physician extenders available to accept patients, do they often run behind in their schedule and if so, by how much time? To help address access, some process improvements include: 1.) Determine what the patient wants and what their unmet needs are; conduct a patient survey for this specific purpose; survey can be completed by patients during check out or given self-addressed envelope to return by mail; 2.) Determine what other clinics in the area offer patients in regards to appointment hours; 3.) Develop a flow chart of the process that encompasses when the patient first arrives till check out to see what steps can be eliminated to create a more efficient and effective encounter; 4.) Review patient volume trends by provider and time of day, week or month to see if there is a pattern that needs a response; 5.) Mandate patient access to a physician within a specific period of time, i.e., within 72 hours; 6.) Office hours: if the office opens up at 8AM (instead of 8:30) and 4 providers are available, you can create 8-12 additional patient appointments (depending on whether you use 10 or 15 minute slots); this translates into 40-60 patients per week. You can consider whether or not to provide an additional day or two with evening hours, particularly if other groups in the area are

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