Patient Access: Tools and Strategies for the Medical Practice

Patient Access: Tools and Strategies for the Medical Practice is organized by Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).

Description
Patient access is business-critical for today’s medical practice. Patient access impacts appointment availability, the cost to deliver medical care, patient and referring physician satisfaction, as well as your practice’s bottom line. Velocity to treatment is the new competitive advantage for medical practices.

Patient Access: Tools and Strategies for the Medical Practice addresses the critical components of patient access: provider supply, patient demand, scheduling optimization, telephone management, call centers, virtual communication, and telehealth. It provides strategies, tools, and resources to help your practice effectively manage the patient access challenge.

With this book, you'll learn to: 
• Balance provider supply and patient demand
• Cultivate a patient access culture
• Determine tactics to streamline call handling
• Develop strategies to optimize scheduling
• Create best practices in telephone management
• Enhance communication with patients and referring physicians
• Provide a detailed road map to design, develop, and manage a call center
• Develop protocols for virtual communication and e-visits
• Select systems that can provide an effective telephone platform
• Benchmark key performance indicators (KPIs) to recommended patient access targets

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Overview

Chapter 2 – Strategy
• Creating a Culture of Access
• Balancing Provider Supply and Patient Demand
• Optimizing Provider Capacity
• Summary

Chapter 3 – Scheduling Optimization
• Scheduling Methods
• Strategies to Optimize Scheduling
• Summary

Chapter 4 – Call Demand and Performance
• Telephones and Quality
• Inbound Calls
• Outbound Calls
• Telephone Quality and Service Expectations
• Customer Feedback
• Summary

Chapter 5 – Telephone Access Redesign
• Engage Stakeholders
• Telephone Action Plan
• Telephone Management–By Call Type
• Converting Inbound Calls to Outbound Calls
• Reducing Inbound Calls
• Summary

Chapter 6 – Telephone Staffing
• Recruiting Telephone Staff
• Creating a Telephone Staffing Model
• Staging the Telephones
• Staff Education
• Staff Resources
• Staff Performance Management
• Summary

Chapter 7 – Call Centers
What Is a Call Center?
• Key Decision Steps in Call Center Development
• Staffing a Call Center
• Call Center Design
• Summary

Chapter 8 – Virtual Communication and Telehealth
• Patient Portal
• Virtual Visits
• E-consults
• Summary

Chapter 9 – Communication Tools
• Telephone Scripts
• Staff Knowledge
• Nonverbal Communication Tools
• Customer Service Tools
• Message-Taking Tools
• Callbacks
• Summary

Chapter 10 – Systems and Technology
• Voicemail
• Automatic Call Distributor
• System Selection
• Summary

Chapter 11 – Key Performance Indicators
• Summary
• Conclusion