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One morning, when my kids were a little younger and after getting them ready for school, my son told me his finger hurt. Like most parents, my wife and I assessed the injury to see if he was really hurt or if he was looking for an excuse to get out of school. I took off from work the first part of the morning to take him to a walk-in clinic. After waiting 2 hours for the walk-in clinic to open, the clinic said they don’t take patients that are not part of their primary care. However, they did inform me there is another clinic down the road that can help. The clinic down the road asked if I had an appointment. I told them, “I don’t have an appointment, but the clinic that referred you said you could see us.” The receptionist said, “We don’t have an affiliation with them. This clinic sees patients who have an appointment every 15 minutes.” As I look around the empty lobby I asked, “May I have an appointment for my son?” She said, “Can you wait 15 minutes?” I said, “Sure thing.” The receptionist gave me a slip of paper with 2 bullet points.
It displayed:
- Name:________________ DOB:____/____/____
Reason for visit:________________________ - Name:________________
I ask the receptionist, “What do I need to put down for the second bullet point?” She then told me while reaching her hand out to grab it before I finished filling out the paperwork, “It doesn’t matter, it’s just a HIPAA thing.” As I sat down waiting for the on-site practitioner to see my son, questions are piling in my head.
- What was the reason to have the second bullet point?
- Do they not need to know the name of the parent or guardian?
- Why did she seem so offended when I told her the other walk-in clinic referred us to them?
- After I told her I didn’t have an appointment, why was I the one to ask, “May I have an appointment for my son?”
While this was not a clinic affiliated with Covenant, I made a suggestion to the receptionist that adjusting the form may help with some confusion others may have. While they may or may not take my suggestion into consideration, our thought process should be “How can we make our processes better for others?” So…how are you improving processes in your respective areas? If you need some help generating ideas or bringing your team together to solve barriers, ask about our Resolve to Solve workshop.
-Drew