Sustained Improvement in Patient Experience by Optimizing Patient Flow in Ambulatory Settings

Abstract

Patient experience has become a priority for healthcare institutions as it affects clinical quality of care, financial reimbursement, provider, and patient satisfaction. We report our experience of improving patient experience measured by Press Ganey surveys in a busy multidisciplinary clinic over 65 months. We optimized patient flow in the clinic by technology-facilitated communication among the clinic staff and by a modest space redesign. We noted a significant improvement in “clinic visit” scores from baseline of 82.1 to 84.6 at year 1, 86.1 at year 2, 88.7 at year 3, and 88.9 at year 4 ( P < .001). In comparison with previous short-term studies, we were able to sustain improvement in patient experience scores over 4 years due to optimized patient flow and monitoring of clinic operations. A similar approach can be implemented in other ambulatory settings and is likely to cause a long-term positive impact on patient experience.