As primary care groups grow through expansions and acquisitions, they may face challenges in balancing operational efficiency with maintaining a consistent, patient-first experience. Managing larger patient volumes, coordinating provider preferences, and ensuring access to care becomes increasingly complex. These challenges were the focus of a recent webinar hosted by Relatient, “Growth Without Compromise: Achieving Patient Access Consistency,” featuring Erin Sandoval, Senior Director of Support Services at Complete Health, and David Dyke, Chief Product Officer at Relatient.
Complete Health, a primary care group operating across multiple states, shared how intelligent scheduling has helped them streamline operations, enhance patient care, and manage rapid growth. Here’s what you can learn from their success.
Centralized Scheduling Improves Efficiency
Rapid growth often overwhelms traditional scheduling processes. For Complete Health, which operates 28 locations and serves over 258,000 appointments annually, decentralization was no longer sustainable. Erin Sandoval led the charge to centralize scheduling, a move that transformed their approach.
“One of the first things we did was centralize the scheduling process,” Erin explained, “It allowed us to take phone calls out of the front office, letting our staff focus more on patients in person.”
Centralized scheduling eliminated location-specific inefficiencies, created consistency, and allowed front office staff to focus on in-person care. The result? Complete Health lowered the average call time to under 3 minutes per inbound call, without loss of quality.
Intelligent Scheduling Simplifies Complex Provider Preferences
Managing provider preferences across multiple locations can feel like a logistical puzzle. Complete Health leveraged Dash® by Relatient, an intelligent scheduling solution, to streamline the process. It codified provider preferences, eliminating the need for manual tracking and reducing scheduling errors.
“We eliminated the need for schedulers to memorize 115 provider preferences by using Dash to automate those rules,” Erin shared, “This streamlined scheduling while maintaining the flexibility providers needed.”
By automating these rules, Complete Health ensured providers had predictable schedules without overloading them. This contributed to them achieving 80% provider utilization.
Supporting Value-Based Care Through Access
Value-based care hinges on timely patient access. Complete Health prioritized keeping patients within their network by using intelligent scheduling to connect them with care team members, even when their primary provider wasn’t available.
“Our motto is ‘patients first, always,’” Erin emphasized, “Intelligent scheduling ensures that if a patient can’t see their primary provider, they’re seamlessly connected with another care team member.”
Timely access also supported Complete Health’s value-based care goals.
Reducing Barriers to Self-Scheduling Adoption
Self-scheduling is a game-changer, but adoption can falter if the process feels complicated. Complete Health identified and removed key barriers, like simplifying insurance entry, to improve the experience.
“We analyzed where patients were dropping off in the process and made adjustments, like streamlining insurance entry, to improve their experience and reduce frustration,” Erin said. “We also followed up with patients who abandoned scheduling to resolve their issues and learn what we could improve.”
This approach helped 30% of self-scheduled patients secure appointments within 1-3 days. Patients now had an easier time booking appointments and the contact center could focus on more complex needs.
Building Scalability Without Compromise
Intelligent scheduling helped Complete Health create a scalable system that supported growth without sacrificing care quality. By automating scheduling rules and centralizing scheduling operations, they maintained consistency while keeping patients and providers satisfied.
“We’ve designed a system that grows with us,” Erin said. “By leveraging intelligent scheduling, we maintain consistency across locations, support our providers, and keep patients at the center of everything we do.”
This scalable model ensures Complete Health can expand efficiently, even as they add new locations and patients.
Delivering Growth and Better Care with Intelligent Scheduling
Complete Health’s journey illustrates the power of intelligent scheduling in supporting primary care groups and other healthcare organizations as they navigate growth – whether driven by organic expansion or mergers and acquisitions. By centralizing scheduling operations, automating provider preferences, and refining self-scheduling processes, they have created a scalable model that balances efficiency with high-quality patient care.
Their results show that growth doesn’t have to come at the expense of the patient or provider experience. Intelligent scheduling allows healthcare organizations to expand while maintaining a consistent, patient-first approach. It’s not just about managing appointments – it’s about building a system that supports providers, enhances patient access, and sets the foundation for long-term success.
Improve Access and Enhance Care with Relatient
Dash® by Relatient is an intelligent scheduling and engagement software solution designed to enhance healthcare access and improve patient care. Recognized as a Best in KLAS solution, we help streamline patient scheduling, manage complex provider preferences, and improve communication. Our features, including patient self-scheduling, automated waitlist management, and personalized engagement, help healthcare professionals run their practices efficiently and ensure timely patient care.
Let’s connect and improve your patient scheduling and communication.
