Improving Access for Priority Patient Populations Within Outpatient Specialty Practices

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Healthcare Management
• Patient Access

Background:

• Outpatient healthcare practices face challenges converting patient demand into completed appointments.
• Excessive appointment lag time is a key barrier, leading to patient nonattendance and cancellations.
• High-priority patient populations are particularly vulnerable to delays in care access.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a mechanism for reducing appointment lag time.
• To improve appointment conversion rates for priority patient populations in outpatient settings.
• To address barriers to timely healthcare access and completion of care.

Main Methods:

• A pilot program involving 12 outpatient practices was conducted.
• Practices were divided into pilot and control groups.
• The study included 11001 patients requesting new appointments.

Main Results:

• The pilot program demonstrated statistically significant improvements in appointment conversion rates.
• The developed mechanism effectively reduced appointment lag time for priority patients.
• Intervention in the pilot group led to higher rates of completed appointments compared to the control group.

Conclusions:

• Reducing appointment lag time is a viable strategy to increase appointment conversion rates.
• Targeted interventions can successfully improve access for high-priority patient populations.
• The findings support the implementation of strategies to streamline appointment scheduling in outpatient care.