Doubling down on ambulatory patient access and bolstering patient loyalty are more critical than ever for providers striving to retain and serve current patients, grow programs, and bend the cost curve. Securing relationships with current patients and providing new patients with easy access to care is increasingly important as competition with traditional and non-traditional providers and a self-service consumer culture become more prevalent. But achieving the desired results—and sustaining them—is difficult. Meaningful transformation of access processes requires unwavering leadership commitment, focus and discipline, and strong alignment with physicians on why access matters and how they can support improvement efforts, all while keeping up with fast-changing consumer demands.
Health systems can typically serve 15%–30% more patients with their current capacity and significantly improve margins by deploying a rigorous and structured approach to capacity management.
