Potomac Street Center learned in the walk through that the intake process was cumbersome and impersonal, and may have been a contributing factor to the intake and actual admission ratio. Potomac Street’s AIM was to Increase Admissions into the Methadone Treatment Program.

Baseline – Patient calls, administrative assistant fills out a long form phone intake with patient. They are instructed to come in when they are able to pay $50 for the intake fee. When patient pays the fee, they meet with the administrative staff to schedule counselor intake and doctors appointment for admission. Change 1 – Patient calls, administrative assistant fills out a short form phone intake with patient. They are instructed to come in same day to meet with a counselor to fill out the long form with $50 to schedule counselor intake and doctors appointment for admission. Change 2 – Patient calls, administrative assistant fills out a short form phone intake with patient. They are instructed to come in same day to meet with a counselor to fill out the long form with any amount possible to schedule counselor intake and doctors appointment for admission with the expectation that the remainder of the intake fee will be paid at the time of their scheduled intake appointment. Change 3 – Patient calls, administrative assistant fills out a long form phone intake with patient. They are instructed to come in at the next available intake slot with the $50 intake fee and are told that they will have the opportunity to see the counselor and possibly the doctor (doctor visit is a first come, first serve basis).

What are we going to do with these results?  Understanding which change yielded the most effective result for the center’s admission rates and the overall approach to the sensitive nature of the intake process.  The realization that there was probably two changes that made an impact on our increased admission, decreasing contact with administration on the phone, encouraging immediate longer admission contact with counselor and then reducing the amount due at that time to schedule this intake. The team recognizes that the counselor impact might have been so significant, it has implications also for the program to look at immediate counselor contact after admission for purposes also of retention.  Figuring out a way to implement these changes without the added costs of doctor time, and counselor time on the front end.

Lessons Learned  Though we saw the changes of the first two cycles as insignificant, the data showed us that the time with the counselor as well as the decreased amount of time with the administrative assistant was actually successful in the increase of admissions.  We think that patients want the 1:1 with the counselor, as a means to schedule their intake.  Asking patients to bring even a portion of the fee, might yield an even greater success rate, yet, it still may not be as important as the contact with the counselor during that intervention.  Implementation of change 2 will increase business to Potomac Street Center and possibly all of the ARTS Outpatient sites.  In addition, looking at the impact that the immediacy of counselor impact might yield results in increased retention as the next step in the process of admission to ORT.