1. Telephone Triage Acute Calls Presented by The General Medicine Team Loyola Outpatient Center

2. Opportunity Statement Through an informal survey, we were able to determine that the source of patient dissatisfaction with the General Medicine Clinic was the length of time it took for a caregiver to return a call and the wait time for an appointment. The General Medicine Team chose to improve patient satisfaction by providing increased access to their care.

3. Most Likely Causes for Current Opportunity –R.N. Availability Lengthy Wait for Call Backs –Full M.D. Appointment Schedules Inefficiencies in the triage process, which result in patient dissatisfaction

4. Solutions Implemented We created a new model to insure that patient requests were immediately directed to the appropriate staff This new model included the use of two Service Reps and one R.N. instead of two R.N.s and one Service Reps (SR)

5. Old Model SR available per phone Health Concerns All patients calls, health concerns, referrals, RX refills, form R.N. available per phone R.N. available per phone All other calls as noted above R.N. SRRN In this model the R.N. is often taking calls for needs other than health care. The lines are criss-crossed.

6. SR All patients calls, health concerns, referrals, RX refills, form NO 2nd R.N. as needed NO Resolution of non health issues Resolution of non health issues YESR.N.YES Does patient have health concerns? New Model

7. New Triage Model The R.N. communicates directly with the patient to address their health concerns The R.N. schedules appointment at the time of the call – no call backs New methods were implemented to add to M.D.s schedules based on increased parameters

9. Results and Analysis In the 3 rd quarter Press, Ganey scores increased to the 95 th Percentile Scores declined slightly with the move to LOC The loss of the 2 nd service rep may have affected patient satisfaction and our efficiency in routing calls

10. Conclusions and Next Steps Press Ganey scores have remained lower than the desired outcomes but this has been attributed to the dependence of the new model on adequate staff mix Continue to reinforce the new model of triage care by filling the Service Representative vacancy