A few years ago, the Cincinnati brain and spine surgery clinic that Michael Gilligan oversaw was having problems with patient access.
Patients at Mayfield Clinic sometimes had to wait two months for appointments, and often when they came in to consult with a surgeon, the surgeon found their conditions would be better solved through some other type of therapy by other medical providers.
For patients, that meant they’d waited two months for no good reason before getting the proper treatment. For Mayfield, it meant physicians were often spending time with patients who didn’t need their services, costing the clinic time and reducing revenue. Plus, the clinic was in danger of losing referrals from other physicians who had to deal with angry patients complaining about lengthy waits for appointments, Gilligan said.
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What turned out to be the solution to Mayfield’s problems has turned into a health IT firm, Priority Consult, that has licensed its software to 62 spine and breast care clinics across the U.S.
The key to Priority’s software is a comprehensive and expedited patient-information-gathering process. Before an appointment can be scheduled, the software guides one of the clinic’s staff members to obtain all relevant medical history information from a patient. Scans of medical images can also be added to the patient record.
Next, a physician reviews the patient information and makes a recommendation — typically that involves scheduling an appointment or referring the patient to another specialist. It sounds very simple, but for Mayfield, the result has been that 40 percent to 50 percent of the patients who call the clinic are referred for treatment elsewhere. And that’s meant far more efficiency for the clinic and its doctors, who have appointments only with the patients who really need their services.
“In my 24 years with the clinic, this has been the single-most impactful change we’ve made in how we take care of patients,” Gilligan said.
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For Mayfield the results have been tangible. The clinic has doubled the rate of surgeries it performs on patients who are seen for appointments, but has actually decreased the rate of surgery among all the patients who call, Gilligan said.
“The benefit for us is that patients who don’t need to see a surgeon get help faster with the right resource,” he said. “Those who do see us are a more surgery-rich population.”
Since the software was developed at a spine center, it’s not surprising that the majority of Priority’s clients (39 of 62) are spine centers, as well. The other 23 are breast centers.
In the future, Priority aims to expand its client base, with oncology or cardiology groups potential targets.
“There’s no area of medicine that wouldn’t benefit from the kind of work we do,” Gilligan said.
