New year…exciting changes! All of the primary care practices at UT Health Physicians are now scheduling patients directly with specialty practices using practice-to-practice (P2P) scheduling.

Beginning in October 2017, the primary care practice at the MARC piloted the P2P program by scheduling a specialty referral at the primary care visit level with appointments for today, tomorrow or next week. The specialty practices included during the pilot included Ophthalmology, General Surgery, Ob/Gyn, Urology and Surgical Colorectal.

UT Health patients are directly benefiting from P2P by having our staff schedule appointments for them as they check out. Not only does it relieve the patient of their responsibility to schedule their specialty appointment, it also reduces the total number of patients in our referral work queue. P2P makes it easier for UT Health to keep its patients healthy.

The initial pilot at the MARC primary care practice saw such success, that as of December 2017, all other primary care locations (Westover Hills, Medical Drive, Hill Country and Geriatric & Palliative Care) were given access to P2P scheduling. 

UT Health primary care practices have scheduled more than 166 patients with our specialty practices. We have received excellent outcomes through the P2P program. We've also received rave reviews from our patients through surveys taken the same day of their primary care visit. With such early success, we anticipate additional specialty practices being added to the P2P scheduling program this quarter and throughout 2018. 

For questions about the P2P program, contact Casey Peterson, Senior Director of Practice Operations. 210-450-9002.