Before the shift toward value-based care, follow-up appointment scheduling in primary care settings was often inconsistent. In many cases, concerns around affordability and operational workflows placed the responsibility of follow-ups entirely on patients—leading to missed care opportunities.

Key Challenges Observed

• Large numbers of patients reaching year-end with unresolved care gaps
• Patients with chronic conditions not receiving timely follow-ups
• Higher emergency room visits due to delayed preventive care
• Absence of standardized appointment scheduling workflows

After identifying these challenges, AaNine’s analytics revealed that nearly 30% of patients were leaving primary care clinics without a follow-up appointment scheduled.

Traditionally, physicians relied on patients to visit the front desk after consultations. However, long queues, unclear responsibilities, and workflow inefficiencies often resulted in patients leaving without scheduling necessary follow-ups.

To address this, clinics introduced a streamlined process allowing physicians to schedule follow-up appointments directly during the visit. This small workflow change delivered significant improvements across care coordination and patient engagement.

Practices that adopted this approach reported up to a 75% increase in scheduled follow-up appointments compared to the original baseline of 30%.

Value-based care success depends on forward-thinking workflows. This case demonstrates how operational innovation—supported by analytics— can deliver measurable clinical and operational outcomes.