Seeing Access through a Shared Lens
By Estelle Woodcock, Patient Access Collaborative
Patient access to care is often described as an enterprise-wide challenge, yet it is usually measured through the lens of individual stakeholders. Scheduling teams experience bottlenecks firsthand as timely appointments are difficult to facilitate, ambulatory leaders track specialty-based performance indicators, and frontline staff hear patient frustrations firsthand. Rarely are these perspectives brought together into a shared understanding at a health system level.
A recent initiative at the University of Oklahoma (OU) Health aims to change that.
In our most recent episode of All Access Pass, OU Health leaders Austin Loomis, MHA, AVP of Ambulatory Access and Analytics, Mandy Newman, MA, Vice President of Ambulatory Operations, and Catherine Mims, MD, Vice President and Associate Chief Physician Executive for Ambulatory Operations, discussed their experience using the new, members-only framework assessment tool by the Patient Access Collaborative. The tool, developed from research published in 2025, was designed to create a unified, interdisciplinary definition of patient access and measure performance across scientifically-derived determinants. Its newest upgrade allows entire health systems - not just individual leaders - to assess the state of access collectively.
Leaders across OU Health, including executives, physician chairs, finance, operations, HR, and IT, completed the assessment ahead of a quarterly executive leadership symposium. According to Dr. Mims, the goal was transparency. “We knew we weren’t all speaking the same language about access,” she revealed. “And if we’re not honest about where we are, we can’t move forward.”
The results revealed just how differently access is perceived across the health system. Individual stakeholders’ scores ranged from the mid-20s to the high-90s, yet the median score landed in the low-60s - placing OU Health in what the framework defines as the “integrating” phase. Newman said the findings felt accurate. “We’ve done strong foundational work,” she explained, “but we’re really just at the beginning.”
One of the most striking insights was the lowest-scoring determinant: simplifying the system for patients. Loomis noted that this finding resonated deeply with leaders. “If we’re not making it easier for patients to navigate care, then what are we really doing?” he observed. The result reinforced the idea that access is not confined to telephones, scheduling, or revenue cycle functions - access spans the entire enterprise.
The assessment also challenged assumptions about growth. While OU Health has seen outpatient encounters increase from roughly 660,000 to over one million in just three years, leaders emphasized that volume does not equal access. Increased utilization does not necessarily mean patients aren’t facing barriers to timely, seamless care.
Perhaps most importantly, the process sparked cultural momentum. OU Health’s CEO closed the symposium with three calls to action: (1) place patients at the center of every decision, (2) break down organizational silos, and (3) commit to improving health access across Oklahoma, which currently ranks near the bottom nationally. Leaders left with a shared language, a clearer picture of reality, and a renewed sense that access is not just something teams do - it is who the organization is.
By using an evidence-based, system-level assessment that elevates the voices of all stakeholders, OU Health demonstrated how a health system can move beyond fragmented views of access toward a collective, patient-centered strategy. As Loomis emphasized, “Access to care isn’t a department. It’s a responsibility we all share.”
Interested in administering the system-level access framework assessment at your health system? The complimentary tool is exclusively for Patient Access Collaborative members; please reach us for more information at admin@patientaccesscollaborative.net.