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Description
Wait times for patients, especially those undergoing oncology treatment, can increase their stress and anxiety and has been associated with decreased patient satisfaction scores (Godley & Jenkins, 2019). At one of the Houston Area Location (HAL),a nursing educational need related to patient assignments was identified. Nurses experienced frequent difficulties finding their patient assignment in the electronic health record (EHR) due to lack of knowledge on how this could be efficiently done. The existing process involved each nurse going to a master list of all patients scheduled for the day and searching for their assigned patients. New patients could be assigned to them at any time without the nurse being alerted. This could potentially delay patient treatments and resulted in a lower than desired patient satisfaction score with “extent to which appointments began on time”.
A nursing needs assessment identified inefficiencies with the existing patient assignment process and revealed a lack of education on utilizing the EHR to optimize patient care. The team was educated on assigning patients to a personalized list and understanding its impact on patient outcomes. This enabled nurses to see assignments sooner and initiate patients’ treatments in a more timely manner.
The HAL’s top box scores for patient satisfaction with “extent to which appointments began on time” increased from 48.48% to 63.64% by April 2024.
Category
Efficiency and Ease of Use
Department
League City ATC
Recommended Citation
McDonald, Rachel M. and Isidienu, Chinne P., "Implementation of a Patient Assignment Process to Improve Nurse Efficiency and Ease of Use in the Ambulatory Treatment Center" (2026). Ambulatory Celebrate Improvements Fair 2026. 10.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/acif26/10
