Abstract

PURPOSE: To reduce the total clinic visit duration among retina providers in an academic ophthalmology department.METHODS: All patient encounters across all providers in the department were analyzed to determine baseline clinic visit duration time, defined as the elapsed time between appointment time and checkout. To increase photography capacity, a major bottleneck identified through root cause analysis, four interventions were implemented: training ophthalmic technicians to perform fundus photography in addition to OCTs, relocating photography equipment to be adjacent to exam rooms, procuring three additional Optos widefield retinal photography units, and shifting staff schedules to better align with that of the providers. These interventions were implemented in the clinics of two retina providers.RESULTS: The average baseline visit duration for all patients across all providers was 87 minutes (19550 patient visits). The prior the average visit duration was 80 minutes for provider 1 (557 patient visits) and 81 minutes for provider 2 (1246 patient visits). In the four weeks after interventions were implemented, the average visit duration decreased to 60 minutes for provider 1 and 57 minutes for provider 2.CONCLUSIONS: A systematic approach and a multi-disciplinary team resulted in targeted, cost-effective interventions that reduced total visit durations.

View details for DOI 10.1097/IAE.0000000000003169

View details for PubMedID 33758134