Case Studies
Time Tracking System Identifies Bottlenecks, Gets Physician a Lunch Hour
Each
morning, patients came in, were cared for in a timely manner
and the schedule was flowing nicely . . . until about 10:30
am. About mid-morning each day, patient flow started
to slow down, and each day, the providers ended up having
little or no time for lunch. Even spacing apart patient
visits mid-morning didn’t help.
Quality
Physician Services was hired to conduct a patient flow and
procedure audit to determine how the bottleneck was occurring.
The team implemented a Time Tracking System that required
little extra effort from the staff, but provided the information
needed to identify the problem. Over the course of 4
weeks, QPS collected data on time spent from sign-in to chart
up, to patient in the exam room, to provider in the exam room
to patient check-out. From the data collected, it was
determined that most of the walk-ins called the office when
they were sick first thing in the morning, then came in mid-morning
each day.
Once
the problem was identified, the solution was pretty simple
– schedule walk-ins to come to the office at different
intervals throughout the day. The walk-in patients still
did not have an official appointment like the patients on
the actual schedule, but their wait time was minimal and providers
were able to get to lunch on time each day, returning to the
office ready to see afternoon patients.
The
time tracking system also helped provide documentation to
handle patient issues with insurance providers. When
patients are in pain or are sick often a short wait can seem
like an eternity. The time tracking documentation has
been helpful in demonstrating efficiency and effectiveness
in patient care to insurance companies. The practice’s
relationship with their insurance providers has greatly improved
as a result of the new system.
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