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Improving Same-Day Access in Pediatric Primary Care-A Patient-Centered and Timeliness Quality Improvement Initiative
Insights
Pediatric primary care increased same-day appointment availability by implementing a centralized call center model. This initiative successfully exceeded its goal, improving access for urgent care needs and specialized follow-ups.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric primary care
- Healthcare access
- Quality improvement
Background:
- Preventive care visits for children in the United States have risen.
- This trend has impacted access to problem-based visits and same-day appointments.
- Same-day appointment availability has shifted to alternative healthcare settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To increase the number of same-day appointment slots in pediatric primary care.
- To achieve a fill rate exceeding 75% for these same-day slots within three months.
Main Methods:
- A quality improvement initiative was implemented.
- The initiative utilized an inbound and centralized call center model.
- Scheduling strategies were iteratively modified to optimize fill rates.
Main Results:
- The initiative surpassed the goal of filling over 75% of same-day slots within three months.
- Access for urgent illnesses, injuries, hospital follow-ups, and newborn care was enhanced.
- Collaboration with pediatric emergency medicine providers and advanced practice providers within primary care contributed to success.
Conclusions:
- A centralized call center model effectively increased same-day appointment availability in pediatric primary care.
- This approach improved patient access to timely care for various needs.
- Interdisciplinary collaboration is key to optimizing scheduling and patient access.
Introduction:
Preventive care visits have increased for United States children, shifting access for problem-based visits and shifting same-day availability to other venues.
Problem Description:
Prior to this initiative we lacked sufficient same-day visits in pediatric primary care. We aimed to increase same-day slots and fill >75% of them within 3 months.
Methods:
Quality improvement initiative utilizing an inbound and centralized call center model.
Interventions:
We iteratively modified scheduling efforts to achieve this goal and identified call-center scheduling efficiencies for fill rate optimization when visits were scheduled under individual providers names added to the general pediatric scheduling department.
Results:
This initiative exceeded the aim of filling >75% of same-day slots within 3 months and demonstrated increased access for urgent illness or injury, hospital follow-up, and newborn management via in-house collaboration with pediatric emergency medicine providers and advance practice providers within primary care.
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