Often, clinicians say that they are too busy with patient care to get involved in improvement. The logical consequence of their remaining uninvolved when improvement is needed is that their perspectives and expertise are left out, and the changes may not be improvements from their perspective.

Physicians are very concerned about patient compliance with treatment recommendations, but sometimes fail to give patients enough clear information to allow them to participate wholly in their treatment. Because non-compliance is the logical consequence of poor understanding, most clinicians can be convinced to engage patients more fully in creating an action plan that will assist with compliance.

Long delays for patients to get an appointment with their provider is a logical consequence of clinics and physician office practices not doing all of today’s work today. Rather than push patient requests out into the future, providers can see patients when they want and need to be seen by shaping or reducing demand and finding hidden capacity in their clinics. Some ways to reduce demand and free up appointments slots include doing some patient follow-up via phone or e-mail rather than having the patient return for an appointment (only if this is clinically appropriate) or scheduling group visits for patients with similar conditions (e.g., diabetes or asthma).