Institute Of Medicine Report Targets Ways To Improve Healthcare Access, Scheduling
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The report provides ways to create timely, accessible healthcare.
A recent report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Transforming Health Care Scheduling and Access: Getting To Now, examined ways to improve access to healthcare and streamline the scheduling process. According to The Advisory Board Company, the report found delayed access to healthcare can have a deleterious impact on morbidity and mortality, patient satisfaction, healthcare utilization, and organizational reputation, and can also have a significant impact on quality of life.
The report stemmed from an investigation by an expert committee charged with reviewing current healthcare access, scheduling, and wait times across the country and making recommendations for the development, testing, and implementation of related standards.
Everyone would like to hear the words, ‘How can we help you today?’ when reaching out for health care assistance,” said Gary Kaplan, chair of the study committee that wrote the report, and chairman and chief executive officer of Virginia Mason Health System in Washington stated in the release. “Health care that embraces this philosophy is patient- and family-centered and implements the knowledge of systems strategies for matching supply and demand. Care with this commitment is feasible and found in practice today, but it is not common. Our report lays out a road map to improve that.”
Among the top causes for access delays, the study found there is currently no standardized approach for providing timely access to care. Incongruence between supply and demand; provider-focused scheduling; outdate workforce and care supply models; priority-based waitlists; care complexity; reimbursement complexity; financial restraints; and geographic barriers also were responsible for delays.
To improve access to healthcare, continuous assessment, monitoring, and realigning of supply and demand are required, the committee said. In addition, alternatives to in-office physician visits, including the use of non-physician clinicians and telephone consultants, can often meet patients’ needs.
The report created 10 specific recommendations, four of which were aimed at leaders of healthcare delivery systems. The report recommended certain basic access principles should apply across all settings, including ongoing evaluation; immediate engagement of patient concerns at the time of inquiry; patient preference on timing and nature of care invited at the time of inquiry; need-tailored care with reliable, acceptable alternatives to office visits; surge contingencies in place to ensure timely accommodation of needs; and continuous assessment of changing circumstances in each care setting.
“There is a need for leadership at both the national level and at each health care facility for progress to be made in improving health care access, scheduling, and wait times,” said Victor Dzau, president of the Institute of Medicine. “Although a lack of available scientific evidence hinders establishing specific standards for scheduling and wait times, systems strategies and case studies can help guide successful practices until more research is completed.”