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Since launching the Texas Children’s Patient Access Initiative, the organization continues to make great strides to ensure patients easily and conveniently get in the door to access our high quality services.

Due to the tremendous dedication of our faculty, staff and the collaborative solutions implemented over the last year, the organization has exceeded its FY19 P3 goal for patient access. While Texas Children’s targeted goal for Access to Care was to reach at least 686,280 provider completed appointments across the system, the organization exceeded that goal with nearly 692,000 appointments, equating to more than 5,000 additional provider completed appointments than originally anticipated.

“This impressive milestone reflects our commitment to improving access and the overall experience for every patient and family that comes to Texas Children’s for care,” said Senior Vice President and Patient Access Leader Richelle Fleischer. “It’s amazing to see how much we have accomplished on patient access in a relatively short period of time through our collaborative efforts. It has truly been a team effort.”

One of the many impactful changes benefiting patient families has been their ability to easily and quickly schedule their appointments online. To date, a total of 38,012 appointments have been scheduled online via MyChart and DocASAP.

In May 2018, Texas Children’s launched direct scheduling that allows current patients to schedule return appointments online through MyChart. Since its implementation, 31,246 visits have been scheduled online and many patients and their families describe the scheduling process as “easy and convenient.”

In addition to direct scheduling via MyChart, over 6,766 appointments have been made via DocASAP, Texas Children’s online scheduling partner. Offered in both English and Spanish, this online scheduling tool is available to new patients, current patients and referred patients at Texas Children’s three hospital campuses including our specialty care locations in Houston and Austin, and Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women.

Other patient access milestones

Texas Children’s implemented other enhancements to improve patient access across the system. Below is an update on where we are today:

• MyChart activations: Texas Children’s continues to see improvement in the number of patients signing up for MyChart. In October 2017, the organization had approximately 61 percent of distinct patients sign up for MyChart. As a result of system wide efforts to raise patient awareness and engagement, we have now exceeded 72 percent activation rate for MyChart throughout the system as of November 2019.
• Electronic Waitlist: Since implementing this MyChart feature that automatically sends texts and email notifications when appointments become available sooner, 6,508 patients accepted an appointment on average 22 days earlier than their prior appointment. The total patient volume includes Texas Children’s Pediatrics (TCP) including our Austin and College Station locations, all subspecialties, sleep studies and therapies.
• Reminder texts: In October 2019, Texas Children’s hit a record low no-show rate of 9.7 percent for provider completed appointments. With the upcoming migration of mobile numbers of almost 10,000 patients from the “home” field to “mobile” fields, these patients will be automatically opted into text message reminders, further scaling the impact of the 7-3-1 messaging strategy where patients can confirm or cancel an appointment via text message at seven days, with additional 3-day and 1-day reminders prior to the appointment day.
• Space Sharing: In September 2018, Texas Children’s launched a pilot program to explore clinical space sharing between specialty clinics in Wallace Tower. This initiative has helped the organization identify underused or vacant spaces that can be used by clinics in need of additional space for appointments. Since go-live, 27 requests have been approved which translates to 292 completed patient appointments.

What’s next for patient access?

For FY20, Texas Children’s Patient Access Steering Committee will launch Access 3.0 with initiatives targeting three new areas of focus that will build upon the organization’s Access 1.0 and 2.0 successes.

• Provider expansion – New teams will investigate opportunities for digital scribes and broaden the scope of the Space Utilization tools to Texas Children’s West Campus and The Woodlands.
• MyChart Patient Optimization – Renewed focus will continue on Online Scheduling via MyChart to ensure the door remains open for patients to book appointments online for any Texas Children’s subspecialty clinic, not just those in which they are returning patients. In collaboration with the Online Scheduling workgroup, the All-In team launched Pre- at TCP’s and Women’s Services areas and will go live with this feature at all TCH Ambulatory Clinics.
• Template Consistency – To maintain and enhance ambulatory capacity improvements from our Patient Access 1.0 and 2.0 initiatives, a team will be working throughout the new fiscal year to ensure template consistency within and across services.

In addition to these areas, Access 3.0 will support the work of our E-Health and Referrals teams.

Want to learn more about patient access efforts? Click here to view our Resource Page.