February 15 | 12:00PM EST

You’ve heard of “The Great Resignation” and are well aware of staffing shortages and burnout rocking the healthcare industry. But what about “The Great Resilience”? Health systems are innovating at a higher and faster pace than ever before, using cutting-edge digital strategies and solutions to plug the gaps left from vacant positions and a record 47% of industry workers planning to exit healthcare by 2025. This panel will discuss key emerging technologies and their roles in empowering health systems to defend against burnout and labor shortages, while granting faster and easier access to care for patients.

Calling all new members! Learn more about the resources and benefits that the Patient Access Collaborative has to offer; get answers to commonly asked questions, like "how do I post a question on the listserv?", "how do a pay a bill online?" and any other questions you might have. Existing members are welcome too!

Each meeting will feature the PAC team and a representative from our Membership and Recognition committee. This month Mike Bachman, Director of Access and Referral Management, Indiana University Health will be joining us. 

Join us for our 2023 Annual Virtual Call Center Conference on February 8.  The event is from 1:15 to 4:00pm EST with an optional, members-only virtual “lunch” from 12:30 to 1:15pm EST. 

Join us on January 18 for Extending the Value of Contact Center Automation to Employee Engagement webinar. Speaker Tara Mahoney, Global Managing Director, Healthcare, Genesys will be discussing tools contact centers can use to enhance the patient experience.

Genesys provides tools for contact centers to deliver a reliable, scalable patient experience though leveraging the foundation of employee engagement. By supporting employees with automation designed to deliver first-call resolution, Genesys allows health systems to incorporate empathetic interactions with a rich engagement platform designed to:

Join us for our 2023 Annual Virtual Call Center Conference on February 8.  The event is from 1:15 to 4:00pm EST with an optional, members-only virtual “lunch” from 12:30 to 1:15pm EST. 

Join us for a webinar on November 29 titled Improving Access for Priority Populations.

Co-authors Emily Godsey, MSHA, Operations Manager, Cancer Services and Dr. Bruce Gamble, Senior Data Scientist, Mayo Clinic, join us to present insights from their recent article in the Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, "Improving Access for Priority Patient Populations." In an outpatient practice, it can be challenging to convert patient demand into completed appointments, even for high-priority patients. One of the barriers to higher conversion rates is excessive appointment lag time, which can lead to nonattendance or cancellation for other reasons. Emily and Bruce will report on a pilot program with 12 outpatient practices at Mayo, representing multiple specialties. The results of the pilot show that improvements to completed appointments can be achieved.

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Patient Access Collaborative members wrestle with access opportunities in all specialties, but Neurology has long been a particular challenge. We invited two members to present on their initiatives to improve access to neurological care through novel approaches. The University of Florida College of Medicine used existing faculty to form a new-patient access clinic, while Penn State deployed clinics that featured walk-in appointments followed by a more successful integrated care team approach.

Taking advantage of the complexity of the inpatient environment, the Department leadership at the University of Florida College of Medicine offered faculty the choice of working in a newly created outpatient clinic in exchange for hospital call. Physicians who opted in could fulfill their responsibilities via an access clinic week(s); residents were also staffed to the clinic. The clinic -- which shares space with the main existing outpatient clinic for the Department - operates five days per week, 10 hours per day. Forty new patients are scheduled per week; if patients require longitudinal care, they are subsequently scheduled for the subspecialty clinic. According to Vice Chair of Operations, Dr. Katharina Busl and Executive Director AJ Yarbrough, the access clinic has not only improved the lag time for new patients (142 days, on average, to 18 post-intervention), but also reduced ED readmissions. Relying on higher-value new patient visits, furthermore, the clinic is profitable. Read more about their work at Neurology Access Clinic: A Model to Improve Access to Neurologic Care in an Academic Medical Center - PubMed (nih.gov)

November 10, 2022 | 1:00PM EST

Join patient access leaders Michelle Winfield-Hanrahan, Chief Access Officer of UAMS and Nicholas Mah, Senior Consultant, Enterprise Access & Innovation at UW Medicine, as they discuss their deployment of PAC industry partner's Luma Health solutions. Michelle will discuss the opportunities and challenges of implementing an innovative patient confirmation strategy; Nick will highlight the novel referral management communication recently deployed at UW Medicine. Join us for a rich discussion of the deployment of new technology to improve access.

Please join us for a webinar featuring experts in Access in Neurology at 1pm ET on Thursday, November 3. You can hear about their efforts -- and engage in a discussion with your peers about this important topic.

Speakers:

• Katharina M. Busl, MD, MS, Associate Professor and Division Chief of Neurocritical care in the Department of Neurology, UF Health Shands
• James E. Rooks, Jr., Professor, and medical director of the NeuroICU at UF Health Shands
• AJ Yarbrough, MBA, CPC, Director- Department of Neurology, University of Florida College of Medicine
• Stephen Ross, MD, Professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Neurology, Chief, Division of General Neurology, Penn State University

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The Patient Access Collaborative (PAC) had the pleasure of featuring speakers from Montefiore Health System, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and University of South Alabama Health to discuss Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) in Access. Each institution highlighted one aspect of the amazing work they are doing related to DEI. From interpreters to digital navigation, the speakers imparted their wisdom and experience to an eager audience.

Greg Lewin, Senior Director, Patient Access Center and Marjulie Munoz, Assistant Director of Digital, Transformation Office showcased their digital strategy, which was built to best serve the "mosiac" of patients served by Montefiore Health System. Aimed to get patients what they need in a language that works best for them in a format that they prefer (text, voice, email), the Montefiore digital front door smartphone app features 23 languages. Their telemedicine strategy extends the language offer to a total of 65 languages, with interpreters fully integrated within the encounter with a seamless three-way video and audio interface. Perhaps surprisingly, seniors are taking advantage of the virtual encounter:  Montefiore found that 50% of their virtual visits were Medicare beneficiaries.

Please join us for a webinar featuring experts in Best Practices in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Care Access on October 20 at 1pm ET. You can hear about their efforts and engage in a discussion with your peers about this important topic.

Speakers include:

• Shelby L. Smith, MS, Director - Care Access, University of South Alabama Health
• Michael Barlow, Referral Center Team Leader, University of South Alabama Health
• Laiza Ramos-Pamias, Spanish Navigator, University of South Alabama Health
• Pravina Mason, Director, ACET Team (Access Care Experience Team), Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
• Greg Lewin, Senior Director, Patient Access Center, Montefiore Health System
• Marjulie Munoz, Assistant Director of Digital Transformation Office, Montefiore Health System

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By Nkechi Okwu-Lawrence, MPH

Enriching the patient access experience in ambulatory settings is crucial from the moment a patient enters the facility, but what about the patient access experience prior to arrival? Justin Ko, MD, Alpa Vyas, and Rebecca Carey of Stanford Medicine Healthcare share their efforts in mitigating fragmentation in referral & pre-visit experiences for patients by transforming the referral structure, referral processing & scheduling, and pre-encounter experience. All three of these leaders sit in the Pre-Visit Experience Governance & Work teams, aiming to “improve likelihood to recommend an easy, timely access to appropriate care”. A novel aspect of their efforts is the 50/50 Prep process within the Pre-Encounter Experience used to inform and prepare for a patient’s upcoming visit. Phillip N Quick, VP of Access Operations at Rush University System for Health, highlights “schegistration” challenges in their Access Center, where pre-registration and scheduling processes are completed simultaneously. Some solutions to this challenge that have been implemented include:

We're thrilled to announce the host for the 2023 Patient Access Collaborative Symposium is Michigan State University Health Care! The symposium will be May 9-11, 2023. Keep your eyes out for more details coming soon.

Please join us for a webinar featuring experts in the Pre-Visit Access Experience. You can hear about their efforts -- and engage in a discussion with your peers about this important topic.

Speakers include: Rebecca Carey, PMP, MBA, Director, Pre-Visit Experience - Model Lines, Patient Experience, Patient Access Relationships and Standards, Enterprise Contact Center, Stanford Health Care; Justin Ko, MD, MBA, Director and Chief of Medical Dermatology, Associate Chief Quality Officer, Stanford Health Care; Alpa Vyas, Vice President & Chief Patient Experience Officer, Stanford Health Care; Philip N Quick, MPS, CHAM, Vice President, Access Operations, Rush University Medical Center; and Patrick Healy, Director of Enterprise Registration and Scheduling, University of Pennsylvania Health System

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