The referral-to-seen wait time for new patients experienced a 25% reduction between January 2022 and March 2024.

The initiative in 2022 to enhance the appointment booking system at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has led to a surge in patients securing their first appointments within seven days of referral, with figures jumping from just 3,315 in February 2022 to 10,723 by January 2024, a 224% increase.

In a bid to enhance patient care experiences, the Center for Patient Experience and Staff Engagement (CPESE) at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) implemented a series of system upgrades to their Referral and Booking Management System (RBMS) back in 2022.

Pending referrals have also witnessed a sharp decline, plummeting from 93,109 in October 2022 to 27,754 in January 2024, signifying a substantial 70% reduction.

Also, the number of patients seen within two weeks of referral witnessed an impressive 91% surge, while the referral-to-seen wait time for new patients experienced 25% reduction between January 2022 and March 2024.

Chief of Patient Experience and Director of Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute Nasser Al Naimi credited the success of HMC’s outpatient care optimisation to the strategic centralisation and decentralisation of operations.

He explained that while management of the Referral and Booking Management System (RBMS) remains centralised, operational tasks have been decentralised across various healthcare facilities.

This decentralisation empowers hospitals to exert greater control over appointment bookings, mitigating unnecessary delays and ensuring that clinic capacities align with patient demand, ultimately reducing waiting times.

To keep up with these optimisation efforts, an executive dashboard for process monitoring has been implemented, providing real-time data on patient access to care, facilitating timely decision-making, and playing a big role in maintaining the gains achieved through the optimisation program.