APPOINTMENT ACCESS - PLANNING TO BENCHMARK A COMPLEX ISSUE

Background: Kaiser Permanente-southern California Region carried out a n external benchmarking project to improve appointment access. This ar ticle provides practical guidelines for planning a benchmark project a round a complex issue such as appointment access. Method: Before condu cting external site visits, team members determined the goals of the p roject, defined internal processes, and identified 16 key elements of access (or those factors important to member satisfaction with appoint ment access). Once a questionnaire was finalized, external benchmark p artners were identified and on-site visits conducted. Conclusion: On t he basis of the on-site visits, team members identified innovative and best practices for each of the 16 key elements of access. Based on th ese recommendations, some improvements were made across the Southern C alifornia region, such as the elimination of provisional booking. Repo rts of the results have also been sent to Kaiser Permanente medical ce nters in the region and across the country. Each medical center is enc ouraged to use these results to internally improve its own appointment access.