Those who were able to talk to a scheduler often had to wait a month or two for an appointment with one of the internists or family practitioners. There is a myth that demand is insatiable. So in the fall of 1998, the group began to make some changes, beginning with the South Clinic. It created new clinical teams to change how physicians saw patients, put new staff in charge of scheduling appointments and created a new scheduling system that had physicians starting most days with more than two thirds of their appointment slots unfilled. The results have been dramatic.
Patients can see a physician the same day they call.
And once patients arrive at the office, they wait an average of two minutes before entering an exam room and another eight minutes to actually see a physician. Other PeaceHealth locations have made similar changes. The project known as the Idealized Design of Clinical Office Practices, seeks to improve overall access to medical services and reduce delays in appointment scheduling at both primary care and specialty practices. IHI has found that, too often, physicians try to limit the number of longer appointments that they schedule. Many physicians, it seems, fear that if they perform too many physicals in one day, they will have to turn other patients away.