Access for All: Building Systems Around Patients at Cooper University Health Care

Access for All: Building Systems Around Patients at Cooper University Health Care

A conversation with Cooper's access leadership triad on why different barriers should never mean lower standards for patient access.

“Our patients are different.” It is a familiar refrain in patient access. The phrase is often followed by a reason that access must be harder, slower, or approached differently. The organization may be an academic health system, serve a large Medicaid population, function as a safety net institution, or care for patients facing significant social barriers.

The challenges are real. But as Elizabeth Woodcock notes in the September episode of the All Access Pass, patients’ expectations are remarkably consistent. They want timely appointments, clear communication, and a health system that works for them, regardless of their insurance status, ZIP code, or individual circumstances.

Cooper University Health Care offers a compelling example of what it looks like to acknowledge differences without lowering expectations. In the episode, Elizabeth speaks with Cooper’s access leadership team: Franziska Jovin, MD, SVP, Patient Access, Ambulatory Operations, and Chief Experience Officer; Joshua Bosire, VP, Access Strategy and Innovation, and Chief Data Analytics Officer; and Carla Truell, VP, Access Operations and Performance.

A 12-year access journey

Cooper’s progress did not begin with a single technology or short-term initiative. Bosire describes a 12-year journey that started with structure: defining access and ambulatory functions, clarifying leadership and protocols, and distinguishing scheduling from non-scheduling work. The organization then expanded its focus to centralized capacity management, transparent data, appointment management, authorizations, and referrals.

More recently, Cooper has moved into a broader transformation. Enterprise Access Services is taking on more of the communication and administrative work surrounding care so ambulatory teams can focus on patients. At the same time, Cooper is advancing customer relationship management, decision trees, artificial intelligence, automation, and an ambulatory strategy that brings related services together in multispecialty locations.

The result is a definition of access that extends well beyond appointment availability. At Cooper, access is where organizational decisions, operations, and technology come together so patients can reach someone and have their need resolved, whether they are scheduling an appointment or seeking help with a clinical or nonclinical question.

The same standard, adapted to the patient

As a safety net institution, Cooper is sometimes assumed to serve only vulnerable populations or to accept lower standards for access, quality, or experience. Jovin rejects both assumptions. Cooper serves patients in Camden and throughout southern New Jersey, and the expectation for access remains the same across its communities.

What changes is the support provided to overcome specific barriers. Cooper brings a broad range of specialty services into Camden because many patients rely on public transportation. During appointment confirmation, staff ask patients how they plan to get to the clinic and connect them with available transportation resources. Patients who arrive late may still be seen. Telemedicine is used when an in-person visit is not feasible. Data on no-shows and clinic demand informs thoughtful overbooking and template decisions.

Cooper has also created specialized teams and care coordination for patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities, a population that has historically experienced significant access challenges. The goal is not to ask patients to fit a standard process. It is to design reliable access around what each population needs.

Access is more than answering the phone

Truell describes one of Cooper’s most important operational shifts as looking at access through the patient’s eyes instead of through departmental silos. Standardized scheduling, specialty-based teams, decision trees, digital scheduling, and stronger template management have all contributed. But the measure of success is not simply whether a call was answered.

“Access is way more than answering a phone call. Access is actually helping a patient get the care they need or the question answered that they need answered.”
— Carla Truell, VP, Access Operations and Performance

That distinction moves access from a contact center metric to an enterprise responsibility. Answering quickly matters, but only if the organization can also offer an appropriate appointment, resolve the patient’s question, and help the patient complete the next step.

Test the assumption

For leaders who believe an approach will not work because their patients or organizations are different, Truell offers a direct challenge: “Let’s test that assumption before accepting it.”

Solutions may need to be customized, but the starting point should remain the same. Put the patient at the center, define the outcome the patient needs, and build around it.

This approach is especially important when resources are constrained. Thoughtful use of clinician time, appointment inventory, data, and technology is not separate from serving patients with greater needs. It is what allows an organization to serve them more reliably.

What comes next

Cooper’s next chapter will continue to center the patient journey. The team is designing facilities and services so patients can address related needs in one place, integrating patient experience into access decisions, and exploring how artificial intelligence and automation can support a better experience amid persistent supply and demand pressures.

The episode closes with a principle that captures Cooper’s work: access should be the same regardless of the patient population, while the system adapts to meet each population where it is. Poor access is not unavoidable for patients facing more barriers. With focused leadership, process improvement, and a willingness to redesign the system, health care organizations can find a better path.

Different patients may need different support. They should not have to accept a different standard of access.

About the episode

Listen to the September episode of the All Access Pass to hear the full conversation with Cooper University Health Care’s access leadership team.