Does Having Open Access to Care Improve Patient Experience? A Case-Control Study

Abstract

This study investigated whether primary and specialist care practices utilizing open access to care (OA) receive better patient experience scores than propensity-matched control practices without OA. From March 2010 to December 2014, 711 physicians classified as having OA in their practice, indicated by scoring 15 or higher on the OA checklist, were propensity matched to practices without OA. Patient experience was measured with 5 composites: timely care, communication, staff quality, care coordination, and overall physician rating. Minimally important differences in patient experience ratings were calculated between OA and control practices to determine optimal OA checklist scores. OA positively affected most composite domains for specialist practices, except physician rating, but minimally affected primary care practices. Practices scoring 19 or higher on the OA checklist had significantly higher patient-experience scores than matched controls. The authors recommend practices strive for 20 or higher on the OA checklist to see significant improvements in patient experience ratings.