patient access benchmarks

Patient Access Benchmarks. Updated in 2020, the AccessKeys® 4.0 represent 35 essential functions critical to your facility’s performance, allowing patient access managers to measure operational department outcomes against national standards. The AccessKeys® are a series of 35 different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that measure how well front-end departments and staff are doing across six Patient Access domains:

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What are the accesskeys®?

The AccessKeys® are a series of 35 different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that measure how well front-end departments and staff are doing across six Patient Access domains:

What is the Patient Access Manager User's Guide?

This document is designed to help Patient Access Managers implement and adopt the metrics into their management process. The User's Guide will provide them with in-depth understanding of each KPI, the calculation, the data source, the purpose and the terminology. *This is a members-only resource, so you must be signed in for access.

What is meaningful benchmarking?

MEANINGFUL BENCHMARKING Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Meaningful Benchmarking •  Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies •  How do we set our KPI thresholds? •  How do we know whether the KPI threshold is a stretch or overstretch?

What are the keys to practice management in hospitals and health systems?

•  Specific Keys for Hospitals and Health Systems and Physician Practice Management around… •  Patient Access •  Revenue Integrity •  Claims Adjudication •  Management •  Pros – •  Comparable from organization to organization •  Based on month end/year end financials •  Cons –

What is a KPI in patient access?

Develop and Monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Patient Access. To ensure a high level of productivity and accuracy, Patient Access operations should be measured on KPIs to monitor quality, process, financial, and customer service.

How do you measure patient access?

Typically, three metrics are most commonly used to measure new patient access: Third next available new patient appointment. Percentage of new patients scheduled within threshold. Average time to new patient appointment (“lag days”)

What are the 5 key performance indicators in healthcare?

Five key performance indicators for healthcare organizations: People, quality, time, growth & financial performance.

What are patient safety metrics?

Patient safety programs require meaningful metrics. Dominant frameworks are based on two safety metrics: one that seeks to identify, measure, and eliminate error and one that seeks to identify, measure, and eliminate injuries.

How can patient access be improved?

Five Steps to Improving Patient Access to Healthcare#1: Create a Patient Access Task Force. ... #2: Assess Barriers to Patient Access. ... #3: Turn Access Barriers into Opportunities. ... #4: Implement an Improved Patient Access Plan. ... #5: Scale and Sustain Better Patient Access.

How do I improve my third next appointment?

Decrease number of days to third next available appointment to zero days (same day) for Primary Care. Decrease number of days to third next available appointment to two days for Specialty Care. Sample all physicians on team the same day of the week, once a week.

What is a structural KPI for healthcare?

What is a Healthcare KPI? A healthcare Key Performance Indicator (KPI) or metric is a well-defined performance measure that is used to observe, analyze, optimize, and transform a healthcare process to increase satisfaction for both patients and healthcare providers alike.

What are operational KPIs?

An operational KPI is a quantifiable value expressing the business performance in a shorter time-frame level. They are used in different industries to track organizational processes, improve efficiency and help businesses to understand and reflect on the outcomes.

What are performance measures in healthcare?

What are healthcare performance measurements? Healthcare performance measurements are aggregated, quantified and analyzed data on a particular healthcare-related activity. Their purpose is to identify opportunities for reducing costs, improving quality of care and increasing efficiency of care delivery.

What are the 4 core measures?

These measures specify best clinical practice in four areas: Heart Failure, Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI, i.e. Heart Attack), Pneumonia, and Surgical Site Infection prevention. Health organizations' performance on the Core Measures is assessed by examining documentation in patients' medical records.

What are the four quality indicators?

Quality Indicator Modules The AHRQ QIs include four modules: Prevention Quality Indicators (PQIs), Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQIs), Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs), and Pediatric Quality Indicators (PDIs).

What is PSI and Hac?

The HAC Reduction Program is comprised of patient safety indicator (PSI) 90 (The Patient Safety and Adverse Events Composite), as well as healthcare-associated infections (HAI). PSI 90 was developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and is used to track potential complications and adverse events.

Why are KPI important in healthcare?

Why are health care KPIs important? Health care KPIs are important for managing the entire data spectrum of a facility, including patient care, hospital performance and costs. They can identify ways to improve patient care services, ensure optimal and sustained hospital performance and manage costs effectively.

How many KPIs are needed for hospital performance?

Here are 10 KPIs in important to health care systems operations: Patient wait time. Calculates the average amount of time a patient must wait between checking in and seeing a provider. This can help with staffing and scheduling and also provide insight into patient satisfaction.

What are key performance indicators in health and safety?

A key performance indicator is a metric that is tied to a predetermined target and represents how far it exceeds or falls below that target. KPIs provide the company with objective data about their health and safety situation, ensuring adequate feedback on the effectiveness of safety initiatives and policies.

What are key performance indicators for nurses?

Top 5 KPIs for nurses in General PracticeIdentifying possible service opportunities for Medicare Items.Improving Quality Care and Safety.Recalls and reminders.Diary Utilisation.Vaccine Clinic Support and stock control.

What is the MGMA data dive report?

The 2020 MGMA DataDive Practice Operations report, based on 2019 data from more than 1,500 organizations, provides a baseline for benchmarking operations through 2020 as the healthcare industry navigates through recovery. This report details key performance indicators (KPIs) and best practices for optimizing patient access to sustain financial ...

Is patient access like the old normal?

Some aspects of patient access will never be like the old normal, but these benchmarks represent a goal for all practices to aspire to in the new normal, no matter where you are on the road to recovery.

Who can access accesskeys?

Any firm referencing the AccessKeys ® in their reporting tools must be an active NAHAM business partner member. Like regular members, business partner members can have access to the AccessKeys ® to download and use for the benefit of their clients.

When was the 2019 NAHAM AccessKeys webinar?

On August 13, 2019, the 2019 Best in Keys awardees presented a webinar which highlighted how they implemented the NAHAM AccessKeys and achieved excellence at their organization. View the webinar recording and answers to the questions they received from attendees. User's Guide.

What is a KPI?

Each KPI is a simple equation which uses easy-to-find data, and each equation comes with some helpful “tips and tricks” provided by the committee. Upon plugging in the corresponding numbers for your organization, you can see if your score falls into the “Good,” “Better,” or “Best” benchmark.

Is AccessKeys a member only benefit?

These are a members-only benefit, and you must be signed in to the website to view and download the files. As a reminder, the AccessKeys ® hold a registered trademark and copyright and are a NAHAM members-only benefit.

Does Naham give credit?

The vendor must give credit to NAHAM on their websites and in their products, using the AccessKeys ® and/or NAHAM logo and link to NAHAM website .

Patient Access Metrics for Efficiency

Here are some of the most important patient access metrics for efficiency you should follow:

Patient Scheduling & Appointment Metrics

You also need to track your patient scheduling and appointment metrics. A few examples include:

Patient Engagement & Fulfillment Metrics

It’s also important to track metrics for how your patients are engaging with the practice. Some of the most important patient engagement metrics you need to measure include:

Patient Leads & Online Presence Measurements

You need to keep an eye on your online patient engagement. Track how many people are using your self-scheduling system, and keep an eye on where your traffic is coming from. The more engaged your patients are, the more likely they will be to schedule an appointment.

Practice Revenue & Engagement Metrics

Measuring your point of service collections is critical. What percentage of your co-pays and deductibles are collected at the time of service? If they are not collected during the appointment, how long does it take for you to collect them? You need to track this to make sure your books are balanced.

Keep Track of Your Patient Access Metrics

These are a few of the most important patient access metrics you need to follow. Remember, by improving patient access, you can optimize the time of your providers, improve your patient experience, and grow the revenue of your practice.

What is the key to restoring visit volumes and avoiding deferred care?

Winning patients’ trust when it comes to safety amid the pandemic is one of the keys to restoring visit volumes and avoiding deferred care, per a July 21 MGMA Statpoll. As medical practices advance in their recovery, administrators and physician leaders must ensure they are progressing back to pre-COVID-19 levels of appointment availability and wait times to ensure that patients are able to receive needed care and have a positive experience. The 2020 MGMA DataDive Practice Operationsreport, based on 2019 data from more than 1,500 organizations, provides a baseline for benchmarking operations through 2020 as the healthcare industry navigates through recovery. This report details key performance indicators and best practices for optimizing patient access to sustain financial viability through the pandemic and attain top performance in the future. Some aspects of patient access will never be like the old normal, but these benchmarks represent a goal for all practices to aspire to in the new normal, no matter how far along you are on the road to recovery.

What is MGMA in healthcare?

Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) is the premier association for professionals who lead medical practices. Since 1926, through data, people, insights, and advocacy, MGMA empowers medical group practices to innovate and create meaningful change in healthcare. With a membership of more than 58,000 medical practice administrators, executives, and leaders, MGMA represents more than 12,500 organizations of all sizes, types, structures and specialties that deliver almost half of the healthcare in the United States.

Can you see patients during lunch hour?

When it comes to operations during the lunch hour, most practices either continue to see patients while also providing phone coverage or were not open for patient visits but still maintained phone coverage. 7©MGMA. All rights reserved.

When monitoring access at a practice or department level, average time to new patient appointment can be a helpful metric?

When monitoring access at a practice or department level, average time to new patient appointment can be a helpful metric. It provides more precise and actionable data that can be tracked over time. Ambulatory leaders will understand the impact of this metric and how it compares across specialties.

When health system executives are seeking to choose a single metric to gauge the system’s access performance, what should?

When health system executives are seeking to choose a single metric to gauge the system’s access performance, percentage of new patients scheduled within threshold should be chosen. This metric provides a cross-specialty view that accounts for each specialty’s need and ability to schedule new patients in a timely manner. This metric should be the metric of choice for executive dashboards.

What is the first step to improving patient access?

Establishing a dashboard with the appropriate KPI and goal is the first step to improving patient access. Alongside this effort, organizations should:

Can you use the third next available appointment?

We do not recommend using third next available new patient appointment. However, it can be helpful when looking at real-time schedules, allowing providers and practice managers to add access when needed.

Is there a benchmark for patient access?

While the importance of patient access is generally recognized, healthcare leaders face a problem that may be surprising: no single, nationally accepted metric or benchmark exists to measure it. When discussing access, the conversations surrounding which metric to pursue are largely dependent on what data has been historically available to a health system. Even more, systems may disagree about what access should measure, balancing when patients want to be seen with what is achievable by the organization and what is medically reasonable.

How to improve patient access?

Here’s an essential capabilities checklist for an analytics solution to help improve patient access performance: 1 Analyze data from across your revenue cycle: Consumer effectiveness (estimations), insurance effectiveness (authorization, eligibility), and team effectiveness (time, cost to collect) 2 Standardize your data with organizationwide reports 3 Offer a library of customizable reports aligned with your business processes 4 Automatically generate reports on your timetable 5 Provide at-a-glance visibility into performance—historical, real-time, and across facilities

What are the priorities of a patient access department?

After ensuring a quality patient experience, two top priorities for a patient access department are to secure correct payment from insurance and from consumers. There are other priorities related to reducing the cost to collect, increasing patient volume, and boosting patient satisfaction, but payment tops the list.

How does patient access analytics help?

Patient access analytics can also help identify how efficient a provider’s patient access workflow is, and pinpoint ways it can be improved.

How can healthcare providers improve patient experience?

Healthcare providers can improve patient experience, increase point-of-service payments, and reduce denials by raising visibility into eligibility and registration processes and using root cause analysis to drive corrective action.

What happened to a 600 bed health system?

Consider what happened to a 600-bed system that had overall denial rates substantially higher than comparable health systems. It analyzed why denial rates were so high and found that registration and eligibility issues were the primary denial causes. Based on that analysis, it targeted specific patient access processes, and the related registration/eligibility denial rate plummeted from 11.66 percent to 1.23 percent. Over a four-month period, that led to $2.4 million in revenue paid on initial submission.

What is the rise of consumerism and complexity of emerging payment models?

The rise of consumerism and complexity of emerging payment models challenge providers more than ever to secure timely and correct payment from both. And, ultimately, the success or failure of these collections begins at the front-end of the revenue cycle.

Why is patient access important?

This makes the patient access function more important than ever, not only because registration/eligibility errors account for the largest percentage of denials, but because patient access contains vast amounts of untapped data.

Why is improving the patient financial experience required a new approach to financial services and counseling?

Leadership recognized that improving the patient financial experience required a new approach to financial services and counseling because each patient’s circumstances are unique.

Why do we collect and analyze data on patients who fail to meet appointments?

Collect and analyze data on patients who fail to meet appointments so that changes could be made based on the patterns shown.

What is a meeting with clinical and financial staff?

Meetings were held with both clinical and financial staff to design optimized workflows that allow patients to be financially cleared prior to hospital arrival. Onsite workshops focused on best practices for consolidating scheduling in preregistration authorization and combining admitting and financial counseling functions under one independent business owner for scheduled outpatient admissions.

What is bill estimation report?

A bill-estimation report, which shows an estimation for patient responsibility and payments at a glance.

How much did the POS increase in two years?

Monthly point-of-service collections quickly surpassed the system’s monthly goal, with a 220 percent increase in POS collections within two years.

What percentage of appointments do not have wait times?

Seventy percent of scheduled appointments do not experience wait times.

Is benchmark data captured?

Benchmark data for key indicators of the patient experience were generally not captured, but it was clear that the patient registration process was too time consuming.