{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02456560814859197, 'fraction_numerical': 0.006590772917914919, 'mean_word_length': 5.423076923076923, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Specialized new patient scheduling unit to improve patient access.

131 Background: New patient unit is responsible for scheduling initial appointment, obtaining pertinent medical records and pathology slides prior to initial visit. Original workflow utilized dedicated schedulers to answer new patient appointment phone calls and emails, obtain patient demographics, brief medical history, and financial counseling referral. A separate chart preparation team gathered records for clinical review by two nurse navigators the day prior to the appointment. There were on average 6 patients/day waiting for appointments on the Pending List and phone wait times were thought to contribute to abandoned call rate and missed appointments. Methods: A workgroup of administrators, schedulers and clinicians was formed to redesign the workflow. The new workflow, starting April 2018, combined new patient and chart preparation team and divided them into three disease specific scheduling teams. Based on appointment volume, there is Team 1 Breast/GYN, Team 2 GI/GU/Thoracic/Head & Neck, Team 3 Malignant/Benign Hematology. Team members are responsible for answering phones, completing intake, and gathering records customized to needs of the specific care teams and enabled nurse navigator to be deployed elsewhere. Results: New workflow has reduced call volume, wait time, call abandonment and no show rates with increased new patient visits. Conclusions: Creating sub-specialty based scheduling teams to work with the clinical team has improved patient access to cancer care and reduced wait time. Further steps are being taken to further streamline process. [Table: see text]