From our three hospital campuses to our health centers, urgent care and pediatric practices, Texas Children’s continues to make great strides in improving access to our patients and their families.
As part of Patient Access 2.0, Texas Children’s launched online scheduling in both English and Spanish on November 12 that allows current patients, new patients and referred patients to schedule appointments via DocASAP, Texas Children’s online scheduling partner. Texas Children’s is the only hospital of the top five on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll to offer online scheduling to patients.
“Since most families prefer online scheduling, it is important for us to pay attention to their needs and do more to help them out,” said Texas Children’s Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier and co-chair of the Access Executive Steering Committee. “Because we really care about our families, we have to keep the doors open to our patients to ensure they get the right care, at the right time and at the right place.”
Led by Project Manager Sarah Ringold, Co-chairs Ryan Breaux, Diesa Samp, Jodi Harris and Executive Sponsor Michele Birsinger, online scheduling will be implemented in waves:
- Wave 1 (November 2018): Allergy/Immunology, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Endocrine, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Plastic Surgery, Pulmonology and Urology
- Wave 2 (January 2019): Adolescent Sports Medicine, Centers for Women and Children Women’s Services, Genetics, Infectious diseases, Nephrology, Neurosurgery, Otolaryngology, Pediatric Surgery, Retrovirology, Rheumatology and Orthopedics
- Wave 3 (March 2019): Centers for Women and Children Pediatrics, Gynecologic Oncology, Physical Medicine and Rehab, Psychiatry, Psychology, Reproductive Endo/Infertility, Urologic Gynecology and Women’s Psychiatry
Texas Children’s patients can access the online scheduling button on Texas Children’s homepage. Once the button is clicked from the homepage, patients land on the new texaschildrens.org/appointment page and can view all scheduling options available: online scheduling, MyChart or calling the Customer Contact Care Center. Patients can also access online scheduling directly from provider profiles and department pages. From there, a scheduling widget will appear where patients and their families can schedule appointments online with a provider.
“Our patient families expect to be able to do so much online today, and it only makes sense that we offer them this capability as well,” said Ringold, who is also a practice administrator in Urology. “This new scheduling tool will also be beneficial to our providers as online scheduling typically results in better template utilization and reduced no show and cancellation rates.”
This project would not have been possible without the collaboration from multiple departments including Information Services, Marketing, Patient Experience, Central Scheduling, Revenue Cycle and HIM. Practice administrators, ambulatory directors and community leaders also devoted time, energy and expertise in this project.
“We have accomplished so much in a relatively short period of time through these collaborative efforts,” said Senior Vice President and Patient Access Leader Richelle Fleischer. “It has been exciting to see this project go from an initial request for proposal to actual implementation. It truly was a team effort.”
In addition to the online scheduling option via DocASAP, patients who sign up for MyChart can schedule their appointments through the MyChart online patient portal. Since implementing direct scheduling via MyChart in March of this year, over 2,000 appointments have been made across the hospital system.
Click here to access the FAQ for online scheduling via DocASAP.
Patient Access Initiative
Since the March 2018 launch of the Patient Access initiative, Texas Children’s has implemented several solutions to improve patient access across the organization. Click here to watch this video.
Below is an archive of recent Connect stories highlighting our patient access initiatives:
Texas Children’s implements first wave of solutions to enhance patient access
MyChart Madness: Scoring points for patient access system wide
MyChart Madness results in, enhancements continue to improve patient access
Patient access initiative continues to generate positive results for patient families
MyChart Shoot for the Stars Challenge: Scoring points for patient access