A Three-part Quality Improvement Initiative to Increase Patient Satisfaction and Reduce Appointment Time

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Patient Experience Enhancement
• Clinical Operations Management

Background:

• PediPlace, a pediatric clinic, faced challenges with extended patient wait times.
• A quality improvement (QI) project was initiated to address these issues.
• The project aimed to shorten appointment durations and elevate the overall patient experience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate interventions aimed at reducing pediatric appointment lengths.
• To assess the impact of these interventions on patient satisfaction and clinic operations.
• To determine if QI efforts could improve efficiency without compromising care quality.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of three key interventions: enhanced electronic health record (EHR) patient tracking, streamlined communication protocols by eliminating script repetition, and introduction of patient art kits.
• Data collection through patient surveys and analysis of appointment records.
• Monitoring of operational metrics such as patient checkout errors.

Main Results:

• Patient satisfaction significantly increased, with negative survey comments dropping from 20% to under 10%.
• Overall clinic ratings improved from 3.8 to 4.75 (on a 5-point scale).
• Initial reduction in patient checkout errors was observed, though rates later increased; however, appointment lengths remained unchanged across over 20,000 analyzed appointments.

Conclusions:

• QI interventions positively impacted patient experience and satisfaction.
• No significant change in appointment length was detected post-intervention.
• Providers demonstrated effective bilingual communication, with no difference in appointment length for Hispanic/Latino patients.
• Patient art kits were well-received, and PediPlace intends to pursue future QI initiatives.