Modernizing Access: A Systemwide Strategy to Elevate the Patient Experience

Over 60% of referring providers report dissatisfaction with the referral process, highlighting a critical gap in access, coordination and patient satisfaction. In response, Regional One Health (ROH) launched a multiyear, enterprisewide transformation to reimagine patient access and referral management across its ambulatory network. Central to this initiative was the optimization of the electronic health record (EHR), enabling a 90% patient satisfaction score for ease of patient scheduling and achieving a 50% reduction in the time from specialist referral order placement to appointment scheduling. Through strategic collaboration with IT leadership, ROH developed real-time patient access operational dashboards, implemented standardized referral management workflows and established comprehensive referral management standard operating procedures to drive consistency and accountability. Key milestones included mapping process flows, identifying root issues, deploying targeted solutions and creating a robust monitoring and control framework to sustain improvements.

This interactive session will equip leaders with practical strategies to optimize EHR functionality to drive automation, improve workflow integrity and align operations with organizational objectives. In addition, leaders will learn how to implement scalable models that ensure timely access, close communication gaps and reduce system leakage by keeping patients within the network through consistent, high-quality service delivery while balancing access demands.