The Everett Clinic expects close to a million patient visits this year. Many of those patients were, or will be, among the first to enjoy a number of innovations designed to make their experience easier.
Chris Knapp, the clinic’s chief legal officer, is part of a multi-disciplinary group called Technology and the Future of Medicine. Its members keep their fingers on the pulse of technological advances in health care.
“There’s a lot of talk about high-tech innovations in health care,” Knapp said. “But some of the things that patients really want are things as simple as making it easy to schedule an appointment and making it easier to refill a prescription.”
In June, the Everett Clinic implemented online appointment scheduling for primary care providers, using the patient portal called My Chart. Instead of requesting an appointment time and taking what is offered, patients can now log on and see all of the appointment times that are open and choose the one they prefer.
What surprised Knapp and his colleagues was the way this self-scheduling took off without any advertising or promotion. They did a “soft” opening — no announcement — to see what the initial response would be.
“We turned it on about 5 p.m. one evening and by 7 a.m. the next morning 176 people had already found it and made direct online appointments,” Knapp said.
Currently, online scheduling is only available for primary care providers but eventually will be expanded to 44 specialties.
Close to 200,000 patients are seen each year in the Everett Clinic’s eight walk-in locations. Online, those patients can look up approximate wait times.
As Knapp explained it, a patient might live by the Gunderson walk-in location in Everett, but if there is a shorter wait time at Lake Stevens, Silver Lake or another place, they might choose to drive a little farther to be seen a little sooner.
Most of the Everett Clinic’s walk-in locations are open seven days a week and have weekend and evening hours. But in response to patient requests, the Everett Clinic has extended hours at most locations for primary care and most specialty care.
The new standard hours for primary care are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday. Many locations now offer Saturday hours, as well.
The Everett Clinic also has introduced self-service touch screen kiosks for appointment check-in and other routine tasks at the Smokey Point and Lake Stevens locations. Kiosks are planned for the Everett Founders and Gunderson buildings on the main campus in Everett sometime in October.
The kiosks enable patients to check in more privately, to update insurance information or personal information and to pay bills or co-pays. The kiosks will not replace a reception desk. It’s simply an option.
Knapp said, “We know that some people still like to check in with the receptionist. We’re just offering those kiosks as different way — providing patients with self-service.”
Self service has long been part of the Everett Clinic’s vision. Patients now take it for granted that they can securely go online to pay a bill or to request a prescription refill. And what is good for the patients is usually good for business.
“If we can make easier for a patient to refill a prescription, it makes for a happier patient and makes it more likely that they will comply with their health care treatment,” Knapp said.
Patients can also go online to find out how much common tests and procedures cost and to review lab results and appointments.
But with all of these new conveniences come concerns about security and privacy. Knapp said the Everett Clinic takes privacy and security very seriously.
In 2012, the clinic fired 13 employees for allegedly accessing patient medical records without authorization. In February 2014, the organization was rewarded for security efforts with a privacy excellence award from FairWarning, a patient privacy monitoring firm.
The Everett Clinic recently celebrated its 90th anniversary. More information is available at www.EverettClinic.com.
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