Tracking Doctor Start Times

"It’s hard to choose just one from the most worthwhile in our collaboratives journey, however, the one that most stands out in my mind is ‘Tracking doctor starting times’. The graphing of which named (and sometimes shamed) each doctor’s performance in this area. It basically measured how long after the 1st booked appointment the doctor actually saw the 1st patient and drew direct correlations between this and session times blowing out. It was obvious that those doctors who regularly started their session late, finished even later, and those who started on time fared much better. As a result, we have seen a behavioral shift in ‘promptness’ which has benefitted everybody;

• the doctor (not feeling so stressed by the end of a session),

• reception (not copping so much abuse from patients), and

• patients (not having to wait as long to see the doctor).

If that’s not a win/win/win, I don’t know what is!!!" Romsey Medical Centre, VIC.