Right Time Care: Patient-centered scheduling service restarts

Right Time Care is the Bert Nash Center Medical Team’s scheduling system, which is designed to get patient appointments scheduled in a timely manner and so patients won’t run out of their medications.

“When a patient calls, we get them scheduled typically with five to seven business days,” said Deb Johnston, who is the Client Care Specialist and scheduler for Right Time Care. “Our goal is to make sure that we get the patient taken care of.

We do everything we can to make sure patients are taken care of in a timely manner.”

Right Time Care was interrupted for a time because of the pandemic.

But the program restarted on July 19. “Basically, it’s the Right Time Care that we had

before the pandemic; it’s going to work the same way,” Deb said. “We know it’s really important to get people in to be seen and to get them their medication.”

When a patient is scheduled with a medical provider, at the end of the appointment, the patient is given a card with a callback date. That’s when the patient will call in to get scheduled.

“Right Time Care ensures that patients are seen by their providers and receive their medications,” Deb said. “That’s the key.”

The team will call patients with a follow-up that they need to schedule an appointment so they can be seen. As a safety net, there are at least two 15-minute appointments every day, to take care of patients who maybe did not schedule to be seen and are about to run out of their medication.

“All the pieces need to work together for us to take care of the patient,” Deb said. “It takes the entire team, from the patient, to admissions, to scheduling, to nurses, to therapists, to case managers, to the med providers, all working together to make Right Time Care works.”

Dr. Nana Dadson, the Bert Nash Center’s Chief Medical Officer, said that during the pandemic many patients experienced barriers to receiving services. She is glad the return of Right Time Care will help those patients receive the services they need in a timely manner.

“This is a patient-centered service,” Dr. Dadson said. “Right Time Care really does mean service for the patients.”