Your Medical Future Now

No More Long Waits

Difficulty scheduling visits is a widespread problem. One solution is as simple as it sounds: same-day scheduling, also called advanced or open access. You call or e-mail your doctor in the morning and get an appointment that day, because the practice has left a large percentage of its slots open for this purpose.

Mark Murray, MD, developed the idea in the early 1990s while managing a busy Kaiser Permanente primary-care department near Sacramento and cut the average wait time for appointments from 55 days to just one. A form of the system is now available to all 8.7 million customers of the giant California-headquartered healthcare system, and other practices have begun similar programs.