Discussion 8
Whether visiting dentists or in emergency rooms, patients spend quite some time waiting in the waiting rooms. In physicians’ cases, clearly, there is double-booking and over-scheduling to ensure that all the capacity that is expensive is used. To improve capacity and wait times, physicians need to employ certain strategies. This is because the effective flow of patients has been recognized to be the key to increasing revenue as well as improving practice efficiency and giving a positive patient experience. The following discussion outline some of these strategies, how and why they should apply them.
Strategy 1: Avoiding bottlenecks
Check-in counter that is traditional is one of the bottlenecks that are most common. Changes in operations and architecture can assist to solve this problem. As such, physicians should know their capacity and schedule accordingly. Over-schedules can keep patients waiting for longer times and thus leading to frustration. In this case, the strategic use of exam rooms is one of the operational changes to help solve overschedule issues. Physicians should know the number of exam rooms the can typically handle at the same time and plan accordingly by considering “swing” exam rooms, which are extra spaces allocated among many practitioners used to absorb patients during high demand times. This allows patients to see physicians on schedule when another patient having complex visit would or else cause a scheduled back-up.
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Strategy 2: Planning of logical paths that have not crossed paths
Usually, a patient checks in sit in the room for waiting, then on their way to the exam room, they have to cross the paths of new patients. Planning for traffic flow which sequentially moves patients without crossing paths may provide a solution. For instance, the use of “just-in-time” patient service, which enables patients to move to exam rooms directly from check-in, without waiting in the waiting areas; while doctors use a separate entrance to enter the room.
Strategy 3: Providing destination signage for patients
This may be as simple as parking or lobby lot signs that direct patients’ destinations floor to the door. The signs may be ones which distinguish check-out from check-in or one which segregates patients by service type needed. This enables patients to know exactly where to go and as such become less stressful.
