Measuring Success

There are a number of ways to measure success in the field of Patient Access. One is to measure performance of the access center, the doorway to healthcare delivery. 

Below is a sampling of the performance metrics we measure and report at our center (The Coordination Appointment Referral & Engagement (CARE) Center).  The metrics are shared with Practice and Hospital Executives as well as Department Clinical and Administrative Leaders.  The weekly reports are automatically pushed via email and the monthly reports are shared at the regularly scheduled CARE Center-Department Leadership Meetings.

• Average Speed to Answer – Weekly
• Abandonment Rate – Weekly
• Service Level – Weekly
• Time to Schedule – Weekly
• Minutes scheduled in a template – Weekly
• Post-call Survey – Monthly
• Provider Feedback Survey - Quarterly 

Another measure of success is appointment availability.  There are many factors that impact availability, they include but are not limited to template management in the form of appointment slots/visit durations and template change requests, sufficient number of providers to meet patient demand, adequate space and availability of telehealth services, and availability of outreach locations.  While provider resources are not within the control access centers, template management is.  Proper management of templates can contribute to increasing appointment availability without increasing provider resources.  Access centers can provide guidance and expertise to our Department partners.  Utilizing functionality within our scheduling platforms to its full capacity, we can optimize scheduling templates to improve appointment availability.  Additionally, quantifying the number of clinic change requests will provide the necessary information to support the institution of automation as well as staffing resources.