YMG Practice Standards

Message from the Director:

The physicians of the Yale Faculty Practice and I are pleased to share with you our Practice Standards. The Standards represent nearly two years worth of effort involving our physcians and staff. We set out to create a document that states our goals and commitments related to meeting the expectations of our patients and referring physicians.

Our standards have been developed from the perspective of our patients and referring physicians and address the key aspects of service such as telephone courtesy, appointment access, wait times and timeliness of reporting to referring physicians and providers. Because the goals are ambitious and comprehensive, it is clear that it will take some time and continuous focus and effort to meet all the standards in every practice area. In this respect, we have taken the principles of Continuous Quality Improvement to heart. Thus, our commitment is to focus first on the most important aspects of service, tackling these issues one project at a time. We are now launching our improvement projects in the area of customer service training, telephone skills and referring physicians reporting.

It is our sincere hope that the values we convey through our standards will be experienced by all of our patients and referring providers in each and every experience with Yale physicians. If you have suggestions or feedback regarding our Practice Standards, please let me know.

Sincerely,
David J. Leffell M.D.
Director

Practice Standards Principles

I. Telephone Access
II. Appointment Availability and Scheduling
III. Information for Patients: Directions, Signage and Clinical Information
IV. Patient Registration
V. Reception/Waiting Areas
VI. The Patient Experience
VII. Physical Appearance of Facilities
VIII. Human Relations
IX. Medical Records
X. Referring Physician Communication and Reporting
XI. Physician/Clinical Productivity
XII. Answering Services
XIII. Billing and Collection Systems
XIV. Patient Billing Services
XV. Managed Care Referral Process

YMG (c) 1998-2004