Change is challenging, even when it’s a change for the better. And even when the change helps patients, they may not like it until they personally experience its benefits.
These are some of the lessons the staff learned at Neshobe Family Medicine in Middlebury, Vermont, when they instituted advanced access, a system that allows most patients to schedule an appointment the same day they call. With three physicians and 5,600 patients, the practice embraced advanced access because evidence shows that it improves patient and staff satisfaction and increases continuity of care.
“We also moved to two appointment types: 20 and 40 minutes,” says Office Manager Ingrid Kaufmann, CPC. “Before, we had 15-minute appointments, 30, 40, 60, and it was really hard for the front office. The schedule was very choppy. Reducing appointment types has made the schedule flow much better.”
To the staff’s surprise, however, patient satisfaction didn’t increase with the new appointment system. “Satisfaction took a dip when we started advanced access,” says Kaufmann. “At first patients weren’t sure if they could trust it. It made people nervous not to book appointments in advance.” But slowly, as patients began to experience the advantages of advanced access, and learned to trust that it worked to their benefit, overall patient satisfaction rose to just under 90 percent.
02/05/2007
