Posted by admin | Posted in Tips | Posted on 10-07-2010
Innovations don’t need to be complicated.
For example, the Boston Globe today features the story of Dr. Dennis M. Dimitri, a family physician affiliated with UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, who promotes open access, i.e. same-day scheduling of patient appointments. According to the article, this change has helped Dr. Dimitri address some of the problems associated with an over-burdened practice and has helped alleviate his patients’ experiences with delayed bookings and long wait-times.
The article further states, “Dimitri’s patients start calling in at 9 a.m. and are assigned 15-minute time slots on a first-call, first-serve basis. Those who want a traditional scheduled appointment can try for the two to three hours a day he reserves for advanced bookings … A few extra slots are left open for walk-ins and emergencies.” Importantly, the article goes on to mention that Dr. Dimitri’s office does not double-book and has very few no-show patients. Read the rest of this entry »