While the importance of patient access is generally recognized, healthcare leaders face a problem that may be surprising: no single, nationally accepted metric or benchmark exists to measure it. When discussing access, the conversations surrounding which metric to pursue are largely dependent on what data has been historically available to a health system. Even more, systems may disagree about what access should measure, balancing when patients want to be seen with what is achievable by the organization and what is medically reasonable.
Typically, three metrics are most commonly used to measure new patient access:
- Third next available new patient appointment
- Percentage of new patients scheduled within threshold
- Average time to new patient appointment (“lag days”)
Measuring access to care in the ambulatory enterprise is essential to the successful delivery of cost-effective and patient-centered care, and metrics provide insight for healthcare organizations to optimize performance. Operational leaders should be looking at all available access metrics regularly.
When health system executives are seeking to choose a single metric to gauge the system’s access performance, percentage of new patients scheduled within threshold should be chosen. This metric provides a cross-specialty view that accounts for each specialty’s need and ability to schedule new patients in a timely manner. This metric should be the metric of choice for executive dashboards.
When monitoring access at a practice or department level, average time to new patient appointment can be a helpful metric. It provides more precise and actionable data that can be tracked over time. Ambulatory leaders will understand the impact of this metric and how it compares across specialties.
We do not recommend using third next available new patient appointment. However, it can be helpful when looking at real-time schedules, allowing providers and practice managers to add access when needed.
Establishing a dashboard with the appropriate KPI and goal is the first step to improving patient access. Alongside this effort, organizations should:
- Obtain buy-in from their employees and providers to improve access.
- Measure appointment supply and demand across specialty departments and find a balance between the two.
- Ensure there is an adequate staffing and provider workforce.
- Ensure processes and technology are optimized to support intended outcomes.
- Continue to monitor patient access measures, and continuously improve on the key success factors listed above.
In some cases, improving patient access is a multifaceted approach that can require organizational transformation. However, failing to make improvements and investments can result in inability to meet consumer demands and loss of market share in a competitive landscape.
Published August 2, 2021