Advanced access works! Improved patient satisfaction, access, and P4P scores

Practices continue to struggle with patient scheduling and assuring access to care for their patients. Consequently, practices are seeking new, innovative ways to redesign practice operations to improve patient, physician, and staff satisfaction. One of the foundations of this redesign is Advanced Access. Advanced Access is a system that gives patients the ability to schedule an appointment with their physician when they want or need to be seen. It redesigns patient access and the scheduling process to increase patient throughput and the medical practice's capacity. This article describes the tenets and implementation process Advanced Access and addresses the challenges that practices face as they implement Advanced Access.