From NSI Manager-Leadership Meeting Minutes 3.2.22, with Nick Postiglione, UWM Patient Access Sr. Consultant

Definitions:
FastPass – allows a pt. that wants a sooner appointment to be pulled forward if an opening arises.

Appointment Request – AKA “Ticket scheduling”.  – involves clinic sending patients a “ticket” to schedule with a specific provider at a specific date and location.  The ticket is returned by the patient, reducing the amount of calls, phone tag and allows flexibility for patient to return their ticket at  their convenience. (Must use MyChart).

Direct Scheduling – refers to return patients initiating their own appointment which is supported by a decision tree to route the patient to the correct provider, etc.  Direct scheduling can support telemedicine as an option*. 

“Open Scheduling” is an additional tool you may hear of but is not appropriate for Neurology or Neurosurgery.

NOTE: All of the scheduling tools rely on patients registering and engaging in MyChart. 

Utilization:
FastPass – is more commonly used particularly in some clinics. Nick demonstrated tracking and noted that in the past 3 days, Epilepsy had offered appointments to 72 returning patients.  Memory Brain Wellness clinic is another high user of this tool. HMC Neurology, UWMC Neurology & Neurosurgery clinics are also using this tool extensively.

Notes for FastPass:

• Check your waiting list – patients must be linked to MyChart to be on the waitlist.
• Check your settings – for example, “visit types enabled”.
• Reach out to your business operations analyst to review your settings and your FastPass waitlist reports.

Appointment Request – AKA “Ticket scheduling” is not commonly being used, though the Neurology Clinic utilizes it somewhat.  It might prove beneficial since it takes less than a minute to generate and send a ticket to a patient’s MyChart account. The patient is immediately alerted of the appointment request.

Notes for Ticket Scheduling: Clinics will NOT receive a ping notifying lack of patient response  – clinics will need to routinely review sent tickets to be sure a patient has followed up with requests, therefore, this method would be most appropriate for pts that are more responsive.

Advice on using the tool: For the Epilepsy clinic, requests are frequently driven by medication refills (though basic calendar reminders are an assist). 
 Another use is that patients are notified that they should anticipate a ticket as they leave from their appointments. It’s  particularly helpful for pts who are not ready to schedule in the moment, but are able to follow up at a later date.

Direct scheduling -High utilizers of this tool included UWMC Neurology and HMC Memory & Brain Wellness – over 50 patients in March!  UWMC Neurosurgery and NW Neurology are also frequent users. HMC Eplipsy are using it to a degree – but it may be helpful for telemedicine.

Notes for Direct Scheduling:
 – In some cases, departments are turned on for direct scheduling, but providers are turned off. (click here for list of providers that are NOT turned on for direct scheduling as of April 2022). Tricia can help facilitate conversations with providers as necessary to adopt this tool.

–  *Direct Scheduling CAN support telemedicine – a ‘visit type’ on the decision tree asks pts if they want a return visit or a telemedicine visit.

*Reach out to Nick via email to have the telemedicine option added so pts can have that option available to them when using Direct scheduling – nickpost@uw.edu

MY Chart Manager Dashboard

Data and clinic scheduling metrics as well as parameters that define patient access are available through the MyChart Management Dashboard.

• MyChart Activation Trends – provides helpful data to regarding clinics and pts.

Same Day/Seven-day Activation Rate shows who is signing up for MyChart.***

(HMC Stroke Clinic is doing a great job of signing up patients for MyChart).

• MyChart Appointment Utilization – key metric noting the % of appointments being scheduled online.
• MyChart Scheduling Breakdown – shows different ways pts are scheduling appts. online.
• Same-day activation – shows who signed up for MyChart

Upcoming technology –

Mychart reschedules is rolling out. If you are enabled for Direct Scheduling those visit types will enable for rescheduling within mychart for patients so they can do this all online.

See also – “MyChart Reschedule (3)