In 2023, an uptrend to 48% of patients said their wait time to see a doctor or nurse was between 0 to 15 minutes with a target of more than 60%. 

This improvement has been associated with focused clinic staff efforts to reduce cycle time, standardization of in-clinic patient care communications, and streamlined patient intake processes.  

Clinic Service Administration, Service Providers, Nursing Support, and Business Office staff.

Standardize daily team huddle with clinic staff providers, interdepartmental care coordination, and integrated schedule management.

1. Adopt standards for urgent patient care communications.

2. Conduct daily team huddles to optimize care coordination.

3. Expand the sexual health clinic schedule at all locations to 12 slots per session during regular hours and after-hours

The 2023 Department of Public Health (DPH) Patient Experience Survey (PES) was a five‐page rapid assessment tool, consisting of 31 questions. Questions 1 to 6 asked for demographic information (age, zip code, gender, education, race/ethnicity, and insurance type). Question 7a asked which service(s) the patient received that day at the health center, while question 7b asked about the patient's type of visit (walk in with same day appointment, walk‐in with no appointment, pre‐scheduled appointment). Questions 8 through 11 were concerning the appointment making process for urgent and routine care, while questions 12 to 16 pertained to phone communication with the health center and wait time to see a provider. Next, in questions 17‐29, patients were asked about their interactions with providers and office staff and the cultural and linguistic competency of the health center. Next, in question 30, patients were asked about which services they would like offered by the Public Health Center. Lastly, there was space for patients to write any additional comments they had at the end of the survey. DPH staff translated the survey from English to Spanish, Chinese, Armenian, and Farsi for cultural and linguistic relevance.

A student professional worker from the Rapid Assessment and Training Evaluation (RATE) Unit prepared survey packets for 11 DPH health centers (Antelope Valley, Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Public Health, Central, Curtis Tucker, Hollywood/Wilshire, Monrovia, North Hollywood, Pacoima,
Pomona, Ruth Temple, and Whittier). The surveys were printed with unique ID numbers in order to calculate accurate response rates for each location, while keeping responses anonymous. In addition, each packet contained survey administration instructions for health center staff as well as a tally sheet
to track daily survey collection progress.

English and Spanish language surveys were prepared for all health centers. Chinese language surveys were prepared for Monrovia, Pomona, and Whittier. Armenian language surveys were prepared for Central, North Hollywood, and Pacoima, while Farsi language surveys were only prepared for Central. RATE staff delivered the surveys to each of their assigned health centers. Trained business office staff at
the health centers supervised the sequential distribution of this self‐administered survey to eligible patients (agreed to be surveyed, aged 18 and older, able to read English, Spanish, Chinese, Farsi, or Armenian, receiving a service at the health center at the time of survey collection, and had not completed this survey previously during the January 3 ‐ April 25, 2023 survey period).

Staff were directed to issue a survey after each eligible patient registered for services, and patients were encouraged to complete the survey after their visit with the provider. Each health center was asked to collect 100 completed surveys during the data collection time period. A survey was classified as “complete” if the eligible respondent answered at least 20 survey questions including at least one grid
question that asked about their experience with the providers/office staff and the health center (q17a‐j, q18a‐j, 20‐25).

During the survey collection period, RATE analysts were in frequent contact with the DPH survey coordinators via email to track the daily survey progress at the 11 public health centers. Survey coordinators were asked to email the provided tally sheet daily to RATE analysts. The tally sheet logged the number of surveys issued per day and their status (complete, incomplete, refused, ineligible/void, or missing). Additional surveys were delivered when health centers were running low on them. Analysts picked up the surveys from the health center when the completed survey goal was reached. The surveys were brought back to the Office of Health Assessment and Epidemiology (OHAE), RATE Unit where they were counted and verified. These numbers were recorded in a master inventory and an overall response rate was calculated for each health center.

Participation in this survey was voluntary. The survey protocol was approved by the DPH Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to implementation.