Advice to other teams: “Listen to everyone’s interests when making a change. We have had great buy-in from those doing the frontline work, because they have been involved from the beginning,” physical therapy manager Fischer said.

Side benefits: “When you have an evaluation day….you have a little more room in your schedule for return appointments, and it’s not as overwhelming,” physical therapy aide Johnson said.

Background: In 2007, more than 40% of all patients who needed to see a physical or occupational therapist in Colorado had to wait more than two weeks for an appointment. The Regional Rehabilitation Services unit-based team found that staff could shorten wait times by scheduling all new patients—whose appointments run 15 minutes longer than a return patient’s—on a single day every month. Access shot up right away, but not all therapists were happy with the new schedule.

In 2009, the UBT decided to test giving therapists more flexibility with their schedules, with evaluation appointments spread over two days. They tried it out at the Skyline clinic for two months over the summer. There was no negative effect on access, and a staff survey in September showed satisfaction up by 35 percent. Then they rolled out the option to all clinics. Surprisingly, Fischer said only a few therapists have elected to change their schedules—simply having a choice made the difference in attitude.