Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety / Joint Commission Resources
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Waits and delays plague health care systems worldwide, and wait times for most specialists exceed those for primary care practices. In office-based practices, the provider office presence is not diluted by competing indispensable activities, and the demand for service is most often for a single type, or stream, of office-based appointment demand. In the more complex specialty practices, however, the demand streams for office visits and other services compete for provider time and dilute the supply of office visits. ⋯ Specialists support various, distinct demand streams that require demand/supply balance to achieve optimal system performance. If demand/supply balance exists within any stream, waits can be minimized, and the practice can choose time frames within which to balance workload.