Quality Reports - Herma Heart Center
Time to Next Appointment
Why we measure it - The time to next appointment actually is the time to the third next appointment, which is a more accurate measure of how long a patient needs to wait before being able to see a specialist of his or her choice.
One of our service standards is the ability to make appointments within a reasonable length of time. We have set a length of two weeks as a goal for subspecialty clinic appointments. Urgent and emergent patients are seen immediately.
What this means - We are currently challenged by our increasing volume resulting in the growth of subspecialty clinics and expanded clinic space. A shortage in pediatric cardiologists nationwide contributes to this problem. Urgent and emergent patients always are seen immediately.
About the data - This data reflects a measure that is an industry standard. This data shows the number of weeks to schedule a new, non-urgent appointment.
Related dimensions of care:
  
What we're doing to provide the best care:
- Urgent and emergent patients always are seen immediately. Referring physicians can quickly access our specialists for consultation or transport 24 hours a day by calling our physician referral line at (800) 266-0366.
- We have expanded diagnostic and clinic space for better organization and improved efficiency.
- We expanded clinic hours including offering an evening clinic for the adult congenital heart disease patients.
- To improve patient flow and case management in the Herma Heart Center clinic, we created many specialty clinics including: Fetal Concerns, Preventive Cardiology, Cardiac Transplants/Heart Failure, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, Marfan Syndrome and Related Connective Tissue Disorders, Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Pulmonary Hypertension, Developmental/Behavioral and Electrophysiology/Pacemaker.
- The Herma Heart Center clinics and diagnostics area is moving to the new tower of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin due for completion in 2009. Patients and families have been involved in the design of the new facility to incorporate their needs. This new area will have 16 clinic exam rooms, seven echo scanning rooms with a sedation staging area, three exercise/stress labs and a sunny waiting area.
- We offer outreach clinics to reduce the number of trips many families need to make to our Milwaukee hospital location. Our specialists travel to or are located in several cities throughout Wisconsin and northern Illinois to provide care closer to where our patients live. Current locations include a second location in Milwaukee (Greenway Clinic), Sheboygan, Neenah, Racine, Kenosha, Wis., and Gurnee, Ill.
- We train future pediatric cardiologists in our fellowship program and are actively recruiting additional pediatric cardiologists to care for the ever-increasing number of patients who seek our care.
- Under the direction of our pediatric cardiologists, our pediatric cardiology fellows and nurse practitioners assist in seeing patients as quickly as possible.
- We are actively recruiting additional pediatric cardiologists to work in our clinic.
Patients/Families -
- If you cannot make a scheduled appointment, please call Central Scheduling at (877) 607-5280 or (414) 607-5280 as soon as possible to reschedule so another child can be seen.
- Arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment so we can gather needed information from you before you see the doctor.
If you have questions about this data or information, e-mail us or call (414) 266-6726. |
