Enhancing the Office Experience

Date: December 2, 2024

Attention: Providers

Call to action: Texas Children’s Health Plan (TCHP) regards patient experience as extremely important. One of the leading measures of patient experience is the amount of time a patient must wait to schedule an appointment or the length of time they spend in the waiting room. There are a lot of barriers in decreasing the wait time, thus providers should focus on improving the waiting room experience.

How this impacts providers: The best way for patients to feel they are receiving the best care possible is to have clear communication and set clear expectations. Based on the 2024 Experience of Care and Health Outcomes (ECHO) survey results, patients are rating their Office Wait Time experience lower than the national benchmark.

2024 ECHO Survey Results – Office Wait Time

Rate	Benchmark	Explanation
63.5%	78.9%	63.5% of patients stated they were always or usually seen within 15 minutes of their appointment.

Next step for Providers: It is important to understand that the patient experience is about the patient’s perception. When patients feel forgotten or mistreated, whether the is under or over 15 minutes, they may disclose their negative feedback in an anonymous member survey. Thus, please see these resources to help with enhancing the waiting room experience and other ways to enhance patient experience:

Patient Experience Tips
Survey Readiness- The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) is a set of surveys that ask patients to rate their health care experiences

Find other useful resources here as well, https://www.texaschildrenshealthplan.org/providers/provider-resources

If you have any questions, please email Provider Relations at: providerrelations@texaschildrens.org

For access to all provider alerts: https://www.texaschildrenshealthplan.org/providers/provider-news/provider-alerts