Situation

A large metro hospital was losing physician referrals and experiencing poor patient satisfaction ratings on its outpatient therapy services.

Team Engagement Strategy

A team of representatives from therapy services, patient registration and administration was assembled to tackle the problem using Rapid Action, an “all in one” team engagement toolkit for accelerating results.

Rapid Action Project Charter

How can we improve physician and patient access to physical therapy services in order to reduce delays in providing appointments and delivering services, while reducing overall waiting times to better compete with outside therapy services clinics?

Sample of Solutions Implemented

1. Shifted operating hours of hospital’s on-site physical therapy clinic and streamlined registration and check-in procedures to improve patient access.
2. Standardized initial evaluation screening tools to more quickly match patients to proper services and improve therapist schedule capacity.
3. Streamlined procedures for evaluating returning patients to reduce delays in receiving therapy and eliminate redundant procedures.
4. Created new walk-in service option to accommodate patients without appointments.