PROBLEM ADDRESSED Patients have to wait too long to see their family physicians. Open access, a new approach to office scheduling, has shown promise in reducing patient wait times to see primary care physicians. OBJECTIVE OF PROGRAM To offer same-day appointments to most patients who call the office, thus reducing wait times as measured by the third available appointment. Reductions in no-sho...

There has been a growing awareness in recent years of the need for health administrators to consider the objectives and welfare of both patients and staff when formulating working policy, and, in particular, the widespread introduction of appointment schemes in a wide range of clinics and general practice surgeries has been an important instrument in balancing the time wasted by doctors (in wai...

BACKGROUND General practices in England have been encouraged to introduce Advanced Access, but there is no robust evidence that this is associated with improved access in ways that matter to patients. AIM To compare priorities and experiences of patients consulting in practices which do or do not operate Advanced Access. DESIGN OF STUDY Patient questionnaire survey. SETTING Forty-seven pr...

INTRODUCTION Frailty is one of the most challenging aspects of population ageing due to its association with increased risk of poor health outcomes and quality of life. General practice provides an ideal setting for the prevention and management of frailty via the implementation of preventive measures such as early identification through screening. METHODS AND ANALYSIS Our study will evaluate...

BACKGROUND The UK government is pursuing policies to improve primary care access, as many patients visit accident and emergency (A and E) departments after being unable to get suitable general practice appointments. Direct admission to hospital via a general practitioner (GP) averts A and E use, and may reduce total hospital costs. It could also enhance the continuity of information between GPs...

Abstract Following the advances in mobile communication and information technology, smart phones have been used in a wide variety of commercial, social, entertainment, file sharing and health transactions and applications. The current procedures in healthcare environment for patient registration, appointment scheduling and payment are time consuming and somehow tiresome. Traditionally, patie...

To test the efficiency of a flexible appointments system patients seeing one of the partners in a semirural dispensing practice were asked to choose whether they wanted appointments lasting five, 10, or 15 minutes. After seeing the doctor they were asked to fill in a questionnaire that asked, among other questions, how long an appointment they had booked, whether they had felt rushed, whether t...