Australians report that their ability to get a timely appointment with their general practitioner is of significant concern.1,2 “Advanced access” is a set of principles for improving appointment systems in office-based health care.3 It applies queuing theory and principles of industrial engineering to doctors’ appointment books (Box), and its underpinning principles are:
continuity (maximising access for patients to their usual doctor); and
capacity (freeing up future appointments by doing today’s work today).3
Through the quality improvement movement,4 the idea of advanced access has been applied in many primary care, specialist and public health services throughout the United States.7 The principles have also been applied in the United Kingdom to more than 5000 practices serving 32 million patients.8 Advanced access changes are about to be implemented by 300 general practices throughout Australia under the $15 million federally funded National Primary Care Collaborative (NPCC).
In 2003, the Kooringal Medical Centre in Wagga Wagga, NSW, was staffed by four full-time GPs, one 0.6 full-time equivalent (FTE) GP and 6.5 FTE administrative staff. Wagga Wagga is a city in rural New South Wales with a population of about 56 000.
Staff and doctors had been experiencing low morale. The wait for routine appointments was up to 55 days. The appointment system was unwieldy, with a multitude of appointment types, such as emergency spots and special script appointments. The system required “fit ins” every day and extensive phone triage by reception staff. Patient complaints were frequent.
Up to 120 appointments — almost a full week’s work for one doctor — were being lost each month through patients failing to keep appointments (“did not attends”, DNAs). Staff felt the DNAs were occurring because patients booked long in advance to ensure access, and then either forgot the appointment or decided they did not need to see the doctor.
Taking advice from Murray,3,4,7 reception staff monitored appointment demand for 5 weeks using a tally sheet to record each request for an appointment. Surprisingly, demand proved finite, predictable and about equalled the practice’s appointment capacity.
In accordance with the advanced access model (Box), the practice tried to work down its backlog, but was unable to reduce it significantly. Therefore, reception staff stopped booking patients beyond a set date and changed staff rosters to match the daily demand. For example, some doctors were asked to move their sessions to high-demand days such as Mondays and shift pre-booked “elective” work, like excisions, to lower demand days. Leave was limited for doctors and administrative staff around the start date. On the actual start date, all staff committed to staying at work until all patients had been seen. Patients were informed about the changes, and were limited to booking a maximum of 5 days ahead.
Since October 2003, the practice has been able to offer same-day appointments. DNAs have fallen to about 20 per month, freeing 100 appointments per month. Practice income rose by about 8% over the previous 12 months and in the absence of significant changes to Medicare rebates. Staff believe the rise in income was due to the decrease in DNAs as well as an increased opportunity to manage chronic disease using Extended Primary Care item numbers.
Morale greatly increased. Doctors felt they were now seeing patients earlier in their illnesses and were able to intervene before deterioration; they also reported a greater sense of control over their working day. Greater continuity of care has been achieved, with patients more likely to see their doctor of choice. The changes have freed up practice capacity, allowing doctors to institute systematic diabetic care planning, which has resulted in a reduction in overall practice glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels. Reception staff reported greatly improved working conditions, related to having to spend less time triaging patients, explaining unavailability and searching for appointments.
Patients were initially concerned at being unable to book weeks in advance. However, confidence in the system grew and staff report generally high levels of satisfaction. Nevertheless, some patients still want to be able to book further ahead, and some exceptions to the 5-day rule were made in response to patient need. Importantly, follow-up appointments initiated by the doctor may be made at any time — that is, the 5-day rule does not apply to doctor-initiated appointments. Unfortunately, recent medical staff losses have reduced practice capacity and have made it difficult to meet all demand on some days.
Practice 2 is a solo practice in Cootamundra, a small town (about 7500 people) in rural NSW, staffed by a GP anaesthetist, a practice nurse/administrator and a 0.75 FTE receptionist/administrator. The doctor, his staff and patients were dissatisfied because the doctor continually ran late and was constantly booked 2–3 weeks in advance. Each day began with some reserved emergency appointment time, but, with most of the day booked, extra emergency bookings had to be squeezed in. Staff members were required to triage urgent patients, which meant that less urgent patients could not get appointments when they wished to. If presenting patients required urgent attention, the doctor frequently had to work longer — often up to 8 pm rather than 5 pm.
This practice heard about the changes made in Practice 1 and sent one of their staff to learn what had been done. Practice 2 felt sure their demand far exceeded their appointment capacity but, to assure themselves of the predictability of demand, they used a tally sheet to record all requests for appointments for 6 weeks — demand and capacity were in balance at about 30 appointments per day.
Practice 2 selected a day 3 weeks in advance and did not book patients beyond that date. Patients were given a flyer explaining the advanced access system and why appointments into the future would no longer be made. The flyer sought to reassure patients that they would be seen on the day they wished to be seen.
In the first 2 weeks of advanced access, reception staff had to field an increased number of phone calls and explain the new system to allay patient concerns. All staff initially worked longer hours to fit all patients in on the day. However, the practice soon adjusted and patients became confident that they did not need to book weeks in advance. Since inception of advanced access, the practice has only offered same-day appointments; this change has been sustained for 8 months.
Gross income, compared on a monthly basis with 12 months previously, increased 18% in the absence of significant changes in Medicare rebates. Staff members have commented that in a solo practice there are many factors that may have caused this fluctuation. However, contributing factors were likely to be the reduction in DNAs, which have fallen from about 10 per month to less than one per month, and the increase in chronic disease care and use of Enhanced Primary Care items.
Doctor, staff and patients report high satisfaction with the system.
These two case reports demonstrate that advanced access is feasible within the current Australian general practice business environment. It is quite likely that other practices and institutions have used these principles in Australia.
In both practices, only Parts 1 and 3 of the model were applied (Box). A principal strategy reported here — the setting of a future date and restricting appointments after that date — is not a fundamental principle in advanced access, although it is a common implementation strategy.9 In particular, Practice 1 limited future appointments to no more than 5 days ahead. Although this may improve sustainability of the changes by preserving future appointment capacity, there has been concern that it may reduce the ability to timetable chronic disease care.10,11 However, Practice 1 found that the changes made allowed time to systematically implement care planning for patients with diabetes (the doctors could pre-book these appointments), which the practice believes has improved control of this disease.
Neither practice attempted to reduce and shape the demand for visits (Box). Better use of practice teams and patient self-management education are examples of strategies that may adjust demand for appointments.
The perceived benefits described in our case reports mirror evaluations carried out overseas. An evaluation of the UK initiative found the mean time to the third available routine appointment fell in 66% of the 462 evaluated practices from an average of 3.6 days to an average of 1.9 days.10 Some participants reported greater control of workload, improved staff morale, fewer missed appointments and a perception of increased patient satisfaction. Many expressed concerns about the amount of work involved in implementing advanced access. A lack of resources, a lack of time and the resistance of colleagues were perceived as constraints. However, only 8% of responding GPs expressed concerns that immediate access or a reduced ability to book ahead might have a negative effect on aspects of primary care, such as continuity of care and choice of doctor. Importantly, patients do not want advanced access to limit their ability to book appointments by phone or at a time of their choosing, or limit continuity of care.12
Access to one’s physician of choice and continuity of care are fundamental principles in the original advanced access model, and are believed to contribute to the efficient adjustment of demand.3 Practice 1 chose access to the preferred physician as an important goal in its implementation of advanced access, and credited success in this area with decreasing demand. This is consistent with overseas opinion,3 and UK experience suggests that an over-emphasis on same-day access may decrease the emphasis on this clinically important outcome.11
There is a lack of rigorous evaluation of advanced access.11 The examples we have described, drawn retrospectively from busy service providers, also demonstrate a paucity of objective outcome measures. Aside from DNAs and estimates of practice income, the effect of the advanced access was assessed through subjective reports of practice staff; there were no objective data from patients or surrounding practices to better assess impact. The work of the NPCC will provide an opportunity to address this deficit.
Steps to achieve advanced access3-6
Abstract
“Advanced access” is a set of change principles for improved scheduling in office-based health care, widely applied in the United States and in the United Kingdom.
Examination of advanced access in two Australian general practices indicates it is feasible in this country and may offer improvements in patient access to care, practice income and workplace conditions.
Rigorous evaluations of advanced access are lacking, but in the Australian National Primary Care Collaborative, 300 practices will implement advanced access, providing an opportunity for a rigorous evaluation of these principles.