Name: Caleb Allred

Status: MS3, Idaho

Project title: Implementation of an Outbound Scheduling Team Reduced the Referral Lag Disparity in Pediatric Otolaryngology.

The challenge: A hospital otolaryngology department recognized that patients preferring to receive care in a language other than English had longer delays in scheduling with otolaryngology.

Prior to the scheduling intervention, patients speaking a language other than English were found to have a scheduling day of six days longer than English-speaking patients.

The solution: We implemented an “outbound scheduling” strategy in which all patients were called by scheduling staff, including interpreters, within 24 business hours of receiving a referral.

Following the intervention, there was no difference in scheduling day between language cohorts. Additionally, the median time to scheduling for all patients following the intervention was reduced to 1 day.

The project: My responsibilities varied from data gathering, data analysis, manuscript writing and conducting interviews with scheduling staff. It was also a pleasure to present my team’s work in Boston at the Combined Otolaryngology Spring Meetings, a national conference for otolaryngology physicians and trainees.

Personal reflections: We all know that problems exist in healthcare. What I enjoyed most about this project was demonstrating the validity of how to fix one. Due to my team’s excellent work, patients are able to be scheduled with otolaryngology quicker and more efficiently.