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Orthopaedic Care: Access

Time to Appointment for Surgical Joint Evaluation

What are we measuring?

The percent of new patients referred for surgical joint evaluations that are seen in less than two weeks by one of our physicians for joint problems.

Why is this important?

Patients referred to a BIDMC specialist by a primary care doctor should have quick and easy access to care for their orthopaedic problem.

What does our performance tells us?

The chart below shows how BIDMC's performance compares to our goal. Look for big differences in the scores in order to be sure that the difference is meaningful. Small differences may not reflect true differences in performance (i.e., they may not be statistically significant).

The goal for BIDMC is based on the overall ambulatory goal of 65%.
View our past performance over time

Fifty-two (52%) percent of new patients referred for surgical joint evaluations are seen in less than two weeks for joint problems compared to our overall ambulatory goal of 65%. Why is our goal 65% and not 100%? Many of our patients prefer to schedule appointments several weeks out so they can arrange for transportation. We work with the patient's schedule to get them in at a convenient time with the goal to get most patients in to be seen within two weeks of their call.

What are we doing to improve our performance?

During this most recent quarter, appointment availability improved significantly over the last quarter quarter.  We continue to evaluate all the provider schedules in an effort to increase the number of appointments and create more slots for urgent patients. We added more appointments each month across all the providers. We also created a new clinical nurse position in the department. This position is making a huge impact by helping to triage patients and helping to get our patients in to be seen more quickly. BIDMC's Orthopedic team is working together to improve access to care so that initial evaluations are more available.

Other useful measures on orthopaedic care:

• Patient Experience
• Total or Partial Hip Replacement
• Knee Replacement

Last updated: February 10, 2012