Kyruus Blog

Health systems and hospitals are increasing their emphasis on improving patient access to attract new patients and retain existing ones. Access centers and their staff play a central role in this initiative, yet they face unnecessary hurdles with such essential tasks as finding an appropriate provider and booking appointments.

Average new patient appointment wait times have increased by 30% across the US since 2014, and at the same time provider schedules often go underutilized.  Accounting for this apparent contradiction, known as the “patient access paradox,”  has led many health systems to explore different approaches to patient access with dual goals of increasing provider schedule density and improving the patient experience.

This is the third post in our Call Center Patient Experience Series. Over the course of this three post series, we’ve explored some of the top barriers to patient access through health system call centers and how they impede a positive patient experience: outdated provider directories, limited patient-provider matching capabilities, and lack of visibility into provider availability.

This is the second post in our Call Center Patient Experience Series. Over the course of this three post series, we’ll explore some of the top barriers to patient access through health system call centers and how they impede a positive patient experience: outdated provider directories, lack of patient-provider matching capabilities, and insight into provider availability.

As we explored in an earlier blog, hospitals and health systems are struggling to deliver a great patient experience through their call centers – often the “front door” to their organization – due in large part to barriers to patient access. Over the course of a three post series, we’ll explore some of these top barriers and how they impede a positive patient experience: outdated provider directories, lack of patient-provider matching capabilities, and insight into provider availability.

Provider Directories & Patient Access

While demand for online self-service capabilities continues to rise, many patients still connect with a health system the old-fashioned way – over the phone. However, access centers frequently lack the resources to provide an effective, high-touch patient experience. In fact, our recent secret shopper report found that 82% of call centers were unable to book an appointment directly over the phone during the initial interaction. That’s not just a major barrier to patient access, it also means that most call centers are not equipped to deliver a call center experience that ends with a booked appointment, a big problem for converting demand and retaining patients in increasingly competitive markets.

Patient experience is quickly becoming a top priority for health systems across the country. For many patients, the experience begins with a phone call to schedule an appointment. While demand for online booking options is increasing, call centers are still the preferred point of entry for many patients.

We in Boston were proud to have our city included on Becker’s list of health IT hubs to know. After participating in the IX Health innovation summit at Cincinnati’s Union Hall recently, I would not be surprised to see Cincinnati on a future edition of the list. In the words of Wendy Lea, CEO of Cintrifuse (one of the sponsoring hosts of the event), Union Hall is the “front door to innovation in the greater Cincinnati region.”

While the initiatives and investments of the StartupCincy community span multiple industries, healthcare is a primary vertical of focus, given the high density of providers (Mercy Health, Cincinnati Children’s, TriHealth, and U Cincinnati Health were among those represented), large payors (Humana), and large self-insured employers (Kroger, Proctor & Gamble) in the area. All of these stakeholders had a presence at the summit, which created a robust forum for discussion on a number of key topics, one of which was Patient Access 2.0: Breaking Down Barriers With Patient Centric Design.

It’s hard to argue against the fact that the US healthcare system has a capacity issue.  In other words, we have too many patients and too few providers—at least it usually seems that way when patients attempt to book appointments.  It’s a supply and demand issue that is unlikely to be fixed anytime soon, considering the physician shortage a decade from now is projected to be up to 100,000 providers.  “Patient occupancy rates” are high and this scenario mirrors something similar that occurs in other industries as well. 

I’ve been in healthcare for over 16 years and have always heard that “healthcare is about 10 years behind other industries.”  While I’d argue it’s not quite 10 years anymore (it’s still close), the time I’ve spent in call centers has revealed that there is still a long way to go when it comes to delivering an optimal front door experience to patients.  The scenario below occurs all too often, even at leading health systems.