solution

You are the manager of a large group practice located in the mid-west. There are approximately 40 physicians. The clinic employs around 125 people. The clinic serves a region of about 95,000 people. The specialties range from psychiatry to general medicine. The clinic does its own labs, diagnostic testing, and outpatient surgeries.

You also know the following:

Scheduling for annual physicals is done weeks in advance to coordinate labs. Providers are deciding to do these in conjunction with other visits. This is causing a disruption in laboratory services.

Patients call for routine issues and must be seen within a day or two. This is causing the schedule to get overbooked. Plus we to work in emergencies.

Scheduling is centrally done at this point. The schedulers are not aware of the time needed for each appointment type. If there is a doubt, the schedulers have been told to just put the patient in the slot. The providers do not want any downtime.

Patients are often called and asked to come in early if there is an open slot.

The staff complain that they do not have adequate supplies.

The schedulers are complaining about the phone system. It is outdated and slows their work down. T

he patient’s complain that the hours of operation don’t allow for weekend visits. The clinic operates from 9 am to 6 pm Monday thru Friday.

There is no use of technology to keep patients informed or allow them to check labs or make appointments.

Initial Post: You are to prepare a memorandum to CEO. Your report should address the following:

Identify which of these issues are impacting the quality of care and which ones are just venting with no real need to address. Some of the issues may have no impact on quality and can be addressed at a later time.

Discuss how you would improve the issues impacting the quality of care.