As you may have heard, since early July, Curtis Brown, MD, and Steve Drabek, MD, of INTEGRIS Family Care Yukon have been testing the Korneluk care delivery team system in their offices.
Changes included moving a receptionist back into their office areas to answer a phone line dedicated to each physician, take appointments and direct patient questions for the same physician. Additionally, all the physicians' patient records were moved back into the same area.
"So far, we are really pleased with the care delivery team system. The patients love it, the staff morale has improved and we can actually see more patients in one day," reported Dr. Brown.
"The system has worked like a mini-office within a larger office,," said Dr. Brown.
Patients were informed of the phone number and office changes through direct mail postcards to their homes and newspaper advertisements.
"In the past,, the largest complaint we received from our patients had to do with our phones. They were satisfied with their physicians,, nurses and office staff, but hated the phones. This system has alleviated most of that problem. Their hold time has deceased, they receive faster answers from the nurses and they get to talk to live people instead of a machine," said Dr. Brown.
Additionally, the patients will generally get to speak with the same person answering their physician's phone. This will allow the patients to develop a rapport with the receptionist and feel like they are talking to a friend rather than someone they don't know.
"The only Korneluk suggestion that we decided not to implement in our clinic was a decentralized checkout," said Teresa Kilpatrick, office manager.
"Since the MMSO has a centralized billing department and we have so many insurance procedures to follow, it seemed easier to have as few people as possible involved in the checkout process," Teresa added.
"From what we were hearing from our patients the problem was not in getting out of the clinic, the problem was getting in," said Cr. Brown.
Another benefit the Yukon clinic offers their patients, is the extended hours clinic for walk in care. Now patients can receive care for acute or emergent conditions on a walk-in basis, Monday through Friday at 8:30 AM. This generally lasts until ( AM when scheduled appointments begin. Saturdays, patients can receive walk in care from 8 to 11 AM. The clinic Physician Assistants mainly see patients during these times, but if the physicians are available during the week they will see them too.
Due to the impressive success of this program, INTEGRIS Physicians Services has agreed to implement the care delivery team system in all the physician practices where it is applicable. To learn more about this program, be sure to attend the physicians' meeting on Wednesday, September 9, at 6 PM. Korneluk will schedule a visit each clinic to help get the program set in motion.
If other clinics have the same success that Dr. Brown and Dr. Drabek have seen in Yukon, all INTEGRIS clinics should run more efficiently by the end of the year.
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