Patients at a clinic operated by Alberta Health Services (AHS) in Grande Prairie now enjoy shorter wait times and the convenience of same-day appointments thanks to an improvement initiative conducted by staff and physicians.

The College and Community Health Centre — on the campus of Grande Prairie Regional College — employs nurse practitioners, physicians, public health nurses as well as laboratory and X-ray technicians. It’s open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

About a year ago, with the assistance of the Grande Prairie Primary Care Network, clinic staff connected with Alberta AIM (Access, Improvement, Measures) — a program designed to help physicians and their teams improve access and efficiency. It’s supported by Alberta Health, AHS, the Alberta Medical Association (AMA), Toward Optimized Practice (TOP) and the Primary Care Initiative.

Clinic staff identified three main goals in their AIM initiative:

• Cut down the number of patients lined up in the clinic’s parking lot first thing in the morning.
• Reduce the wait time while in the clinic.
• Offer same-day or next-day appointments with a family physician.

“We had recognized the need for change for a long time,” says Heidi French, patient care manager at the College and Community Health Centre. “But, because the PCN suggested AIM and we were invited to partake, we thought it was a really good opportunity to start fixing it. It’s been baby steps to get us where we are today where we can offer same-day appointments and, in the future, offer next-day appointments.”

Among the solutions brought forward was to re-allocate the clinical assistant to help out at the registration desk at peak times.

The initiative also improved the processing of walk-in patients. Instead of waiting in line to check-in, register and then wait to see a doctor, nowadays patients in the queue are asked if they need to see a doctor immediately, or if they can come back later that day.

“If they say ‘yes, right away,’ we offer them an appointment right away,” says French, noting that about 15 appointment slots are now made available in the clinic’s first hour of operation each day.

However, if the patient can come back later that day, a specific appointment time is booked for them. This has dramatically reduced the time it takes for the lineup of patients to be registered — often as little as 19 minutes.

Previously, on busy days, it would take staff up to 45 minutes to register the lineup of patients at the door. Once in the clinic, some patients would wait up to three hours to be seen by a physician. Average time spent in the clinic has now been cut to 40 minutes or less.

Patients are also playing an active role in improving clinic efficiency. Chosen at random, patients are given a clipboard with a log sheet and digital clock, and asked to record each step of their path through the clinic. They record the time when they enter and leave the waiting room, enter the exam room, and see the doctor. Their tracking is helping to identify where any delay or bottleneck occurs, and is helping staff to make further improvements.

As well, patients can now phone the clinic, after 10 a.m. each morning, to book same-day appointments with a physician. French says they’re working towards bumping that time back to 8:30 a.m. and being able to offer same-day and next-day appointments.

“It means people get in, they see their health care provider, they get out, they can go back to work, or if they’re sick, they go home,” says French.

Clinic improvements have made a positive difference for Marc Spinney, a Grande Prairie resident who came for six walk-in visits to the clinic over the past year.

“I’ve never had to sit very long,” says Spinney, 43. “A lot of times I’ve been through there in 20 minutes to a half hour.”