Consider what you have learned these past few weeks about triple aims, quality, and measurement tools. Discuss key concepts that interested you and how they apply in your current environment as a clinician, patient, analyst, etc. I have provided a case study and discussion questions below to help prompt conversations. You do not need to address each question, but you should draw your answers from personal experiences and include key concepts you’ve learned thus far.
You are an administrator in a community health center that provides primary care to a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual urban community. Many, but not all, of the patients live below the poverty line. Physicians and nurses see a large volume of patients with challenging medical and psychosocial issues.
Lately, you have realized that the scheduling of patient visits has become something of a nightmare. Because of the high volume of patients, the wait for an appointment for routine care can be anywhere from six to eight months or more. Even acutely ill patients often wait for two to three days to see a health care provider. Out of frustration, many patients walk in without appointments, often during lunch hour or late in the afternoon when everyone is getting ready to leave.
What makes the problem so challenging is that 20 to 40 percent of patients fail to show up for appointments on a given day. Because of this high no-show rate, every other appointment on physicians’ schedules is double-booked with the expectation that, out of the 30 to 35 scheduled patients, only 20 to 25 will show up. Occasionally, however, most of the patients do show up – and when a significant number of acutely ill patients also arrive, the work environment becomes unbearably chaotic for everyone. Providers become harried and more likely to make mistakes, patients wait for long periods of time in crowded waiting rooms, and the atmosphere becomes increasingly hostile as the stress level mounts.
The quality and experience of health care for many of these patients is suffering partly because of lack of access to care. It is becoming increasingly clear also that the better-insured and English-speaking patients may be getting better access: they are more likely to get a timely appointment because they are more demanding of the system, and they are more likely to keep and show up for their appointments because of better communication.
Discussion Questions
1. How can the intersectionality of triple aims and social determinants of health be improved?
2. What QI initiatives, tools, or measures could be implemented to address health equity in the case study?
3. What issues stand out to you in the case study and how would you address them?
4. How does health equity affect patient safety?
