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Patient Scheduling = Executive Learning

At a PPE (Prior Place of Employment) of mine, we offered the usual gamut of outpatient diagnostic imaging services - on-campus, off-campus, physician office-based, whatever. And, somewhat unique among providers at that time, we also offered a 24/7 centralized call center where patients (or their physicians) could schedule procedures based on their own criteria - perhaps a specific date or time, or the first available appointment at a specific location, even first available anywhere in the network.

I knew the system intimately; I was the executive responsible for its creation. The software worked as advertised - which is to say most of the time and pretty well. The call center staff was as dedicated and diligent as you could ever wish for. The problem? Well, much of the organization hated the concept and the flaws it exposed.

An under-appreciated benefit of scheduling centrally is learning which leaders and locations are out there hustling for business. You might think that'd be a good thing and it is - for a few. For the rest of the organization? Not so much.

The manager of one particular outpatient MRI center proved exceptionally adept at competing on a "first available..." basis with hospital-based services where the approach to life was, shall we say, a little more leisurely. Yet the fault was always the call center's when a patient chose a location where "first available" meant "...how soon can you get here?" and not "...a month from now unless we get busy with ER patients..."

"We don't CARE what the patient wants! They ALWAYS come here! They're SUPPOSED to come here...!" graced my voicemail inbox so many times I almost had it printed on my business cards as some sort of perverse, reverse-branding statement.

I know how difficult it is for an insider to advocate for the patient-as-customer. I've still got a few arrows in my ass as proof. Now I'm waiting for the day when patients use, say, an iPhone to broadcast their need for an MRI and have all centers within a 25 mile radius bid for their business based on THEIR criteria.

"How soon can you get here?" Indeed.



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