Your Voices Have Been Heard
I want to begin by thanking those of you who took the time to reach out to me after receiving our last newsletter. I have heard and appreciate your feedback which serves to validate that we are moving forward in the right direction. Please understand that our process improvement initiatives will take three to four months to fully implement. We appreciate your patience as we continue to prioritize these improvements.
Last month, my team and I spent several days personally responding to those of you who reached out with concerns. Our work is ongoing. These changes will take time to implement in a system as vast as ours. But our commitment to making your experience the best it can be is unwavering.
The first step we have enacted is a new billing system, which we launched on June 1. We are working to refine and improve its efficiency in the coming weeks. Secondly, I am negotiating with new vendors to enhance our phone system with a decision forthcoming in mid-June.
Our third step will involve a move to online patient scheduling, with a target transition date of late June or early July. UA receives almost 50,000 monthly calls. Of those, almost half are related to patient scheduling. This represents a great chance for us to modernize, which will allow you to schedule appointments via our website. I estimate we could eliminate about 20,000 calls a month. That will relieve our staff to better focus on more pressing patient calls and concerns.
In addition, we recognize the need to conveniently communicate with your physician. We will begin training for providers beginning in August on using our patient portal system, and they eventually will be equipped to communicate with you more efficiently. Please understand that will take a few months, but we are excited about streamlining your communication.
Thank you for entrusting us with your medical care. We appreciate your ongoing support and patience as we continually are working to improve. As always, I welcome your feedback, and either I will reply personally, or one of my team members will respond to you as promptly as possible. Please submit your messages to me here.
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