Improving patient satisfaction through improved telephone triage in a primary care practice

Area of Science:

• Primary Care
• Health Services Research
• Patient Experience

Background:

• Patient satisfaction with clinic access is crucial in primary care.
• Telephone triage systems can significantly impact patient experience and access to care.
• Suboptimal patient satisfaction with clinic access was identified, linked to the existing telephone triage system.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance the telephone communication experience for patients in a primary care setting.
• To evaluate the impact of specific interventions on patient satisfaction with clinic access and communication.

Main Methods:

• An exploratory survey identified issues with the telephone triage system.
• Interventions included monthly quality improvement meetings, recording phone interactions in the electronic medical record (EMR), and advance appointment scheduling.
• A follow-up survey assessed the effectiveness of these interventions.

Main Results:

• Patients reported more frequent question answering (p<0.01) and easier appointment making (p=0.03) post-intervention.
• Emergency care seeking due to inability to reach a provider showed no significant change (33.8% vs 31.9%, p=0.68).
• The increase in patients receiving a callback within 24 hours was not statistically significant (38.6% vs 44%, p=0.13).

Conclusions:

• Implementing quality improvement meetings, optimizing EMR use, and advance scheduling improved aspects of the patient experience.
• The interventions did not significantly alter the use of emergency services.
• Further resource allocation and interventions are necessary to fully optimize the patient experience.