Brainstorm

Last week, we had a celebratory lunch meeting with our office staff. It turned out to be a goldmine of ideas.

Karen presented our latest 3rd NAA stats. Still looking good:

Now we need to take the waits down to our 14 day target. Time for some small tests of change.

Contagious

I’m leading with the stats (as of February 27) this week, because they are sweet!

Two weeks ago, I met with one of the university-based surgery groups to discuss Advanced Access. It felt like I was in that TV commercial where a man travels into the past to give advice to his younger self. Their group looked just like our group did one year ago when we first considered starting this process.

The division head was interested in Advanced Access because he (and his colleagues) realized that their patients were waiting too long for consultation appointments. Perhaps he'll be the clinical champion.

Other surgeons appeared skeptical. Again, this had a familiar air to it. Several openly expressed their skepticism. They began listing the reasons why Advanced Access wouldn't work for them: I’m too busy. I have research and teaching commitments. I can't increase my clinical load to work down backlog. We're already working as hard as we can.