Assess Processes and Use of Clinical Staff Resources
Time to Complete: 2 weeks
Difficulty: Moderate; requires analysis of current practice processes
Outcome: Considerations to optimize patient care
Steps
Assess efficiency of current patient care processes
- During project meetings, discuss current patient care delivery processes and their efficiency with staff.
- Brainstorm opportunities for improving patient care and for optimizing physician and other clinical staff resources.
Explore optimization opportunities
During project meetings, discuss the following options and other ideas from a brainstorming session:
- Use of non-physician clinical staff to optimize patient care
- Patient education and self-management for disease prevention and treatment enhancement
- Offering different opportunities for physician-patient communication and interaction, such as email
- Offering group visits for patients who have chronic diseases
What You Will Need
Team meetings to discuss current processes and to brainstorm optimization opportunities
Tool
As you explore opportunities to improve patient care processes, this FPM sample survey may help to assess the possibility of implementing e-mail communication with patients in your practice: Survey of Patient Internet/E-mail Capability and Interest (1-page PDF file. About PDFs).
Where to Go for Help
Read the following FPM articles for ideas on what you can do to optimize patient care processes and make efficient use of your clinical staff:
Join a free collaborative online network committed to practice transformation. Learn more about Delta-Exchange.
This Patient-Centered Medical Home section of the AAFP web site was supported in part by a grant from Merck & Co.
This Patient-Centered Medical Home section of the AAFP web site was supported in part by a grant from Merck & Co.
