Academic medical center urgent care reduced LWBS and decreased wait times

After adding staff, space, and hours, this San Bernardino-based urgent care turned to online booking technology to further improve its throughput metrics
CUSTOMER PROFILE
Academic medical center urgent care
LOCATION
San Bernardino, CA
CUSTOMER SINCE
2016
PRODUCTS USED
GOALS
Improve the patient experience by offering convenience that can decongest the waiting room, better manage patient arrival times, and reduce wait times.
OBSTACLES
High volume patient arrivals tended to cluster around predictable times, creating bottlenecks, long wait times and a higher than average LWBS rate.
RESULTS
Online check-in help redistribute patient arrivals in the early morning to less busy times, which reduced opening volume, dropped the LWBS rate, and increased patient satisfaction.

Challenge

Being affiliated with an academic medical center meant that this urgent care saw high patient volumes every day of the week. Patients would line up at the door when the clinic opened hoping to be seen right away, resulting in long waits and frustration – frustration that would sometimes translate into patients leaving without being seen by a doctor. In the 24 months prior to implementing online check-in, the LWBS never dropped below 2.7% compared to the target of getting it below 1%.

Solution

After searching for a solution for more than two years, including adding more space, more staff and more hours, this San Bernardino area urgent care ultimately decided to use technology to their advantage. By implementing the online scheduling platform from ER Express, they allowed patients to hold their place in line through their website and wait from home. At the same time, staff were given more control over patient volume and visibility into the kinds of conditions coming in that day.

 

"You're not adding to your problems. You're redistributing."
Ramon Issa, MD | Medical Director of Urgent Care

Results

29%
Reduction in LWBS
25%
Reduction in patient
volume upon opening
17%
Increase in patient satisfaction
Online check-in helped redistribute patient arrivals in the early morning to less busy times, which reduced opening volume by 25% and the LWBS rate by 29%. 1 in 10 patients were now using online check-in to their advantage. By saving their spot online, patients could now have more convenient access to the urgent care during less busy hours, avoid waiting in long lines and be seen shortly after they arrived. Having a decongested waiting room also meant that the length of stay dropped by 1 hour while patient satisfaction increased by 17%.
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