Outreach is a great care management strategy. You’ll increase visit volume, so spread out calls so you don’t bottleneck the schedule. Also, don’t get stuck trying to make this process perfect – just do it!
- Identify an element of chronic care management or preventive care that needs improvement; for example, missing A1Cs for patients with diabetes or colorectal cancer screening.
- Identify a person in your practice who could do outreach. Evening staff, MAs, students?
- Empower staff to order labs and schedule visits.
- Staff and physicians should review the patient list before calls are made. Scrub the list – remove nonpatients, deceased patients, and enter data you might have tracked down elsewhere. You’ll probably discover you’re dealing with a small, manageable group.
- Provide staff with a script:
- Include info about why you’re doing the outreach (“Your doctor wants me to call you because we don’t have your A1C on file”).
- Prepare for unexpected questions from patients, such as script refills.
- Script an apology for when you call the home of a deceased patient (it will happen).
- Script an apology for when you double-call patients.
- Set a target number of calls each day.
