Quality and Outcomes 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 available appointment for new patients, which is a more accurate measure of how long a patient needs to wait before seeing a specialist of his or her choice for the first time. 

One of our service standards is the ability to make appointments within a reasonable length of time. Urgent and emergent patients are seen immediately.

What this means - We have made significant improvement in this area. The opening of our Greenway Clinic location has helped us reduce our time to next appointment. Urgent and emergent patients always are seen immediately.

About the data - These data reflect a measure that is an industry standard. These data show the number of days to schedule a new, non-urgent appointment.

Related dimensions of care:

What we're doing to provide the best care:

  • 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, 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. 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 many outreach clinics and surgical sites 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 in Vernon Hills, Illinois to provide care closer to where our patients live. In addition to the main location in Milwaukee, other clinic locations in Wisconsin are located in New Berlin, Racine, Kenosha, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, and Neenah. We also have an additional surgical location at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee as well.
  • We offer the Family Accommodations Program to help make travel arrangements and coordinate appointments for families traveling to our center from a long distance.
  • 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 and families:

  • If you cannot keep 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.

Referring physicians:

  • Fill out and fax a referral form prior to sending the patient to Children's Hospital for outpatient ancillary services or a specialty clinic visit. 
  • Forward any pertinent patient documentation, including test results, to the specialty physician's office prior to the patient's visit.
  • Referring physicians can access our specialists for consultation or transport 24 hours a day. Call our physician referral line at (800) 266-0366.  
  • Health care providers from outside of our southeastern Wisconsin service area are encouraged to use our web-based
    e-Consult service. This service is available for non-urgent patient cases only and gives providers access to our specialists to review patient cases, obtain medical advice or second opinions, and receive care recommendations for rare symptoms and illnesses.
    e-Consult is not to be used by the general public, parents/guardians or families.
  • Care guidelines for medical professionals
  • Educational materials
  • Pocket Directory

If you have questions about this data or information, email us or call (414) 266-6556.