By Katarina A. Lewczyk  | Date published: October 2, 2024

Stephen Krinzman and Colleagues Spearhead Patient Urgent Access Initiative 

New access initiative shows promising outcomes throughout ambulatory clinics

All medical care starts with patient access. The first clinic visit can involve significant wait times to see a medical specialist, with some patients waiting months for an appointment. These waiting periods can delay important clinical care and create danger for patients. To address this issue, physicians and ambulatory staff in the Department of Medicine and throughout UMass Memorial Medical Center are launching a new initiative aimed at reducing wait times for patients in need of urgent care. 

With the support of the Department Ambulatory Working Group (DAWG), Stephen Krinzman, MD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care, partnered with Christine Vallee, senior director of ambulatory care at UMMMC, and Clara Doan, of the Hospital and Patient Access Center (PAC), began the initiative by collecting data on how many urgent referrals come into each medical consulting specialty each week and evaluating which patients need urgent attention. The manager and physician leader of each clinic then review their physicians’ schedules and adjust as needed to ensure there are enough slots reserved to meet the need for urgent referrals. As slots become available, referring physicians can request an urgent consultation and have confidence in the expedition of these visits.  

“The data we have received from PAC has enabled us to tailor the number and type of slots reserved to meet the need,” said Dr. Krinzman. “Even in practices with a fairly long wait for most new patient appointments, we have found that reserving slots for urgent patients has not substantially increased the wait for non-urgent patients.” 

Many ambulatory clinics have been successful with the implementation of this new initiative. In addition to providing timely patient care, the streamlined plan saves time and effort for clinic staff and the PAC. To ensure the ongoing success of the initiative, Tim Alibozek, an ambulatory business analyst at UMMMC, and the PAC have developed a new metric to track urgent access across all ambulatory clinics. “We hope that our success will encourage similar initiatives elsewhere in the medical system,” Dr. Krinzman said. 

Dr. Krinzman and Clara Doan presented this initiative at the 2024 annual meeting of the Patient Access Collaborative in Atlanta, Georgia, a national meeting of academic medical centers. The concept of separating urgent access for special attention and troubleshooting was well-received as a novel way to approach access problems.