It Pays to Share Your Schedules

Follow-up tests are a common process for many patients, and many can occur on the same day. Problems arise when departments don’t coordinate schedules, and the testing facility gets overbooked. An adult medical center in Rockville, Maryland, was not meeting their threshold for mammogram screenings. The team worked with the radiology lab to share data for same-day scheduling. In three months, the team reached the target of 87 percent in patient screening. Key to success was the two teams getting together and working through a solution.

Here's What Worked

• Sharing scheduling data with collaborative departments
• Setting boundaries to respect the other department’s needs and processes, like avoiding late-day appointments
• Writing it down and gettng consensus so everyone can follow the procedure

What can your team do to work collaboratively with a sister department to improve the patient experience?