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Work With Patients to Ensure Follow-Up Appointments

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Unit assistants help avoid costly readmissions

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Timely follow-up appointments can help prevent costly and stressful hospital readmissions.

But making these appointments can prove difficult during hectic hospital discharges, or after a patient has returned home.

Even when appointments are made, they aren’t always kept.

The Unit Assistants UBT at Redwood City Medical Center took on the challenge of increasing the number of follow-up appointments scheduled to occur within seven days after discharge.

Team members knew they could increase the likelihood of patients keeping these appointments by working with them and their family support members before they left the hospital.

“Obviously we can’t force a patient to go to an appointment, but we can try to make appointments when it’s suitable for them,” says union co-lead and senior unit assistant Judith Gonzales.

Starting with one hospital floor, unit assistants spoke with patients before they were discharged, taking notes on which days and times they preferred for appointments, and then passed the written information on to the staff members responsible for scheduling.

In eight weeks, the percentage of patients who kept their follow-up appointments jumped from 50 to 60 percent and soon the whole hospital was on board.

“We piloted in July 2013, and two months later we rolled it out to all the floors,” says management co-lead Amelia Chavez, director of operations, Patient Care Services. “Our percentages climbed and climbed. It was phenomenal.”

By January 2014, 86 percent of follow-up appointments at Redwood City were taking place in the seven-days, post-discharge window.

“The patients loved it; we included them in the process,” Gonzales says. “This improved our patient satisfaction scores as well.”

TOOLS

Format:
PDF

Size:
8.5" x 11"

Intended audience:
Frontline employees, managers and physicians

Best used:
This poster features a Northern California team that found a way to get medications to patients in the hospital more quickly. Post on bulletin boards, in break rooms and other staff areas.

Related tools:

TOOLS

Format:
PowerPoint slide

Size:
8.5" x 11"

Intended audience:
Frontline teams, managers, sponsors, physicians

Best used:

This one-page slide shows how the Oncology unit-based team in Redwood City boosted its low phone scores. Save on to your computer to include in meetings or presentations as an example of UBT performance around telephone service.

Related tools:

TOOLS

Format:
PDF

Size:
8.5” x 11”

Intended audience:
Frontline workers, managers and physicians 

Best used:
Inspire your team with this piece that highlights the importance of colon cancer screening for patients.

 

Related tools: