Overview

Spectrum Health Systems

Merrick Street Outpatient Reduce Wait Time Change Project

Mark Orris Program Director

AIM (Plan)• Identified need to reduce the wait time for

initial assessment. Many of the assessments were no showed possibly related to the wait time for clients.

• Baseline data indicated wait time for initial assessment was 25 days after first phone call to intake.

• GOAL: to reduce wait time from 25 days to 5 days by implementing walk in services.

CHANGE (Do)• Started a walk in admissions process every

Monday from the hours of 8am-noon for all Substance Abuse/Mental Health counseling referrals. Any client looking to have a Substance abuse or Mental Health intake can come in on this day and have their first initial intake completed that day.

• Clinical staff were available during this time, with the Clinical Director as back up for overflow admissions

RESULTS (Study)• Review of data for the 3 months following this change

indicated that wait times reduced significantly from an average of 12 days to 3 days.

• Because of the immediate access, the show rates for the initial assessment also improved

•

NEXT STEPS (Act)• Plan to continue this change for outpatient

counseling intakes• Considering expanding to the Suboxone

program to improve wait times and reduce no shows for assessments in this program

IMPACT (Business Case, Lessons Learned)

• Clinicians were able to refer clients to our Suboxone, Methadone, IOT programs as appropriate.

• Improved show rates both impacts client care positively as well as clinician morale as clinical staff are paid by client hour.

• The central intake department’s administrative burden was also reduced as they only processed the clients who presented to the walk in hours