UFJP Operations

Ambulatory visits are on the rise at UF Health North

By Rita James

Ambulatory Services

In fiscal year 2017, there were 626,155 visits to network practices — 206,001 on the downtown campus and 420,154 off campus. The off-campus total includes 44,066 visits at the UF Health North medical office building. Total visits dropped slightly from fiscal year 2016 due to provider vacancies.

North campus medical office building business visits continue to grow, with an average of 4,325 monthly visits from March through June. Thirty-three percent of visits represented new patients. At 58 percent commercial, the book of business is significantly higher than the 37 percent at the remaining off-campus locations. The clinical departments continue to add providers and sessions to meet patient demand.

The centralized call center just completed its ninth year of service. It receives 130,000 calls each month and answers 97 percent of all calls, 86 percent within 30 seconds. The abandonment rate for patients who disconnect before they are assisted is 2 to 3 percent, which surpasses the 4 to 5 percent rate of our academic peers. Effective June 26, the call center’s hours were extended from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. To date, an average of 400 calls per week have been received between 6 and 10 p.m.

We continue to enhance patient communication using the MyUFHealth patient portal. At the end of June, there were 56,242 active patients. Between 2,000 and 3,000 patients are added each month. One-third of patients who arrived at our practices in June have active MyUFHealth accounts. At six of the practices, more than 60 percent of patients have active accounts.

Ambulatory Services has several performance improvement initiatives underway, including patient satisfaction, care coordination, recertification for Level 3 NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home, referral processes and surgery scheduling.