The Medical Group Management Association reported medical practices are focusing on patient experience and access to care.
The Practice Operations Survey reports benchmarks about several new areas, including patient portal usage, wait times and hours of operations. Here are 10 key points from the data:
1. Most — 85 percent — of the practices conducted patient satisfaction surveys.
2. Among the groups that do collect patient satisfaction surveys, 70 percent conduct them at least monthly.
3. The average wait time at physician practices is 10 minutes to 15 minutes.
4. More than half — 61 percent — of the responding practices report taking action to improve wait times.
5. Only 26 percent of practices expanded hours on Saturdays; 11 percent are open on Sundays.
6. Nearly all of the practices opened on the weekends are primary care or multispecialty practices; only a "handful" of specialty surgical practices are open on the weekends.
7. More than 10 percent of the practices use online portals most for accessing test results, with primary care practices reporting a higher percentage of online portal use than other practices.
8. Around 25 percent of medical practices don't currently report an annual budget.
9. Among the 75 percent of practices that do create an annual budget, most compare the year-to-date status relative to their budget on a monthly basis.
10. The MGMA Stat poll conducted in April 2016 found more than 80 percent of the responding practices changed or were in the process of changing their processes to improve access to patient care.