Conference Preview: The Omnichannel Approach to Unlocking Access

Session Title: The Omnichannel Approach to Unlocking Access

Presenters: Pamela Ravare

Learning Lab: Series 3

Date/Time: May 5, 10:15 a.m.

About the Learning Lab

I think we would all agree that we feel the pressure of consumerism as it relates to establishing better access to care. During this learning lab, I look forward to sharing how our organization has shifted its access-related efforts to a more systematic, omnichannel approach to unlocking access.

Our access vision is to establish our physician organization as the national leader for providing unparalleled access for our patients. Our working vision tenets for Patient Access start with meeting and exceeding our patients’ expectations with a differentiated yet predictable experience. In addition, we strive to maintain the integrity of our teaching and research mission while enhancing the patient experience and organize our operations to seamlessly deliver patients to our physicians, thereby liberating their time and expertise to provide care.

I would emphasize the importance of taking a hard look at access challenges from the patient’s perspective. Where are your access breakdowns? Like most hospital organizations, we faced challenges with pigeonholed leadership, fragmented decision-making and uncoordinated efforts with access initiatives in the organization.

Solving access challenges is a multidisciplinary effort. We had to gain a full understanding of our patient struggles with accessing care, identifying those areas and locations with bottlenecks around appointment scheduling, arrival and registration, wayfinding and provider delays. 

Our organization has undergone an access leadership evolution this past year. We have transitioned access accountability from a practice level to a medical group level by defining and differentiating access leadership in practice operations. We have leveraged technologies, centralized/standardized workflows and we have taken an omnichannel approach to appointment routes (online, chat, virtual visits, walk-ins and call center scheduling).

Unlocking access through open direct scheduling makes it easier for your patients to receive care and connect with your organization. Your overall approach will yield greater results in patient satisfaction and increased revenue.