Exploring the partnership between clinical access and patient experience

"How can we really improve our access and patient and family experience?" asks Dr. Ahmed Abdelmoity, MD, FAAP, FAES, Vice President of Clinical Access at Children's Mercy."Let me be a little bit disruptive here and say that improving access doesn't necessarily improve the experience. A lot of times, it will do the very opposite. How can we improve the patient experience through access, and vice versa, in a circular manner?"

Abdelmoity says that when Children's Mercy started this work, they figured out they had a little over 2,000 appointment types. (Yes-two thousand.) He says he's very proud that they only have 16 appointment types now.

"I had to really figure out what my denominator is, so I can improve on it to get a percentage at the end," he says. "What are the key metrics? What data are meaningful for the families, and not just something to make ourselves look good?"

Access-Initiative Goals

• Improve patient access and experience, thereby improving access metrics
• Improve staff productivity and experience
• Ensure staff are working to top-of-scope
• Ensure patients are sent by the right provider, in the right time frame, at the right location
• Increase scheduling accuracy

"I had to measure it to see how we are improving in all our KPIs," Abdelmoity says. "And of course, it must align with many other areas, our contact center, and our referrals. We educated our referring providers internally and externally. This has to be supported with the top administration and has to have buy-in from the front staff, seeing the value and why that is."