Access Granted: The Innovations Making Health Care More Accessible for Patients

By Tesha Montgomery

In recent years, access has remained a crucial differentiator for health care organizations. According to NRC Health, four key elements — coverage, location, availability and wait time — act as barriers to patients seeking and receiving care.

Traditionally, accessing care has involved outdated phone systems, long hold times, repetitive questions, paper forms upon check-in and long waits for specialty care appointments.

As consumer expectations shift toward an "on-demand" model seen in other industries, these traditional barriers are no longer acceptable.

To meet these evolving needs, Houston Methodist is proactively transforming access to care through strategic technology deployment and centralization efforts aimed at enhancing the patient experience and improving operational efficiency.

"By focusing on technology, optimization and centralization, we are not only improving access and convenience for patients but also transforming the overall health care experience," says Roberta Schwartz, executive vice president and chief innovation officer of Houston Methodist. "These initiatives have led to a more efficient and seamless process for patients and staff alike, enhancing patient satisfaction and delivering higher-quality care and bringing us closer to the ideal patient journey."

The organization's comprehensive approach to enhancing the patient journey incorporates several coordinated strategies.

Care on-demand is available 24/7 through our virtual urgent care platform. Houston Methodist has seen impressive growth in Same Day clinics, with patient volume increasing more than ten-fold, from 3,000 in 2018 to over 50,000 in 2024.

Additionally, Houston Methodist has expanded online scheduling to include primary care, specialty care and imaging appointments. Currently, 55% of Same Day clinic appointments are scheduled online, providing easier access for around 200 patients a day, while 43% of new primary care and 16% of new specialty care appointments are now scheduled through our digital platforms.

To further enhance convenience, Houston Methodist leadership has focused on technology, innovation and optimizing core operations.

One key innovation is Fast Pass, an automated waitlist management system embedded in our EHR that sends text or email notifications to patients offering sooner appointment slots.

In 2024 alone, Fast Pass helped fill over 44,000 appointments, allowing patients to be seen an average of 20 days earlier than expected.

The Access Transformation initiative has also been pivotal in automating scheduling rules, optimizing workflows and enabling cross-site scheduling. By integrating advanced EHR tools with a sophisticated communication platform, the organization is redefined how it engages with patients, providing self-scheduling options and decision trees for seamless scheduling across multiple specialties.

Since implementation, departments such as Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, Urology, Neurology, Gastroenterology, OB-GYN, General Surgery and Radiology have seen a 26% increase in online self-scheduling, a reduction in agent training time and improved scheduling accuracy.

Houston Methodist is also leveraging AI and bots to enhance the call experience, automating functions such as appointment cancellations, confirmations, rescheduling, prescription refills and outbound imaging referral scheduling. This automation has significantly reduced the burden on scheduling agents, freeing them up to focus on more complex tasks.

On the operational side, Houston Methodist is optimizing provider and resource capacity by addressing template setup issues and ensuring consistent scheduling. Template optimization involves centralized management, aligning with our technology-driven initiatives.

A key component of this transformation is the centralization of specialty doctor appointment scheduling across the Greater Houston area.

This centralization is supported by a dedicated quality assurance team that monitors agent performance and upholds high service standards. Additionally, workforce management practices ensure agents are available and responsive.

"By consolidating clinic-specific call centers into a single, streamlined system, we've established a 'front-door' approach that simplifies and enhances the scheduling process," Schwartz explains.

As a result, the organization has seen a significant increase in the number of appointments scheduled by our central team. With more calls being managed in the Department of Medicine and Neurology call centers, the team is now scheduling an additional 10,000 appointments annually.

This article originally appeared in DIOP, a LinkedIn newsletter on Healthcare Insights from Digital Innovation Obsessed People.