Centralized Scheduling Center to Improve Patient Access at Sutter

Albert Chan, MD, Sutter Health VP, Chief of Digital Patient Experience, and Steve Chambers, General Manager & VP, Patient Access Solutions, Sutter Physician Services, Sutter Health. Patients have more choices in healthcare than ever before. Today’s patients want consistent and seamless care when it is convenient for them, which may or may not be the time of the next available appointment. Over the years many physicians have built their schedules in a way that has become counterproductive over the long-term, for example, building customized slots for only specific types of patients, but not filling them. Physician schedules have become doctor-centric instead of patient-centric. During this session Dr. Chan and Steve discusses how “less is more” when it comes to physician schedule preferences. They also discuss best practices for a provider’s management of their clinic schedules, how a centralized scheduling center can improve access and how building preferences in the EMR (in this case, Epic) will improve efficiency in the scheduling process and ultimately improve schedule utilization and patient access.