More departments to join Yale Medicine CARE patient access center

Yale Medicine is preparing to expand the Coordination, Appointment, Referral and Engagement (CARE) Center it launched in January to make it easier for patients to access ambulatory care and services.

Phase one of the Center launch involved about one-third of providers in the Yale Medicine practice in these departments: Diabetes, Metabolic Bone, Nephrology, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, Pediatric Medicine (all specialties), Pediatric Surgical Services and Urology.

Phase two is projected to integrate additional departments: Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Yale Internal Medicine Associates, Allergy, Infectious Diseases, Rheumatology, Neurosurgery, Emergency General and Trauma Surgery, Surgical Oncology- General, Surgical Oncology- Endocrinology, Endocrinology (at Smilow), Plastic Surgery, Ear, Nose, and Throat (excluding Head and Neck), Pulmonary, Sleep Medicine, Pain Medicine, Digestive Diseases, Bariatric Surgery, Colorectal Surgery, Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery, Vascular Surgery and Thoracic Surgery.

Phase two departments are expected to integrate with the CARE Center between January and June 2020. The entire Yale Medicine practice is expected to join the Center by June 2021.

Information Technology Services departments at Yale New Haven Health and Yale Medicine partnered to help develop the CARE Center, which uses new technologies to improve patients’ and schedulers’ experiences. These include the SpinSci application, which identifies a caller’s phone number and whether the number is associated with an Epic record. If so, the caller’s demographic and summary medical information are displayed on the scheduler’s screen, making the process faster and more efficient.

“The CARE Center provides quality, centralized access for our patients while maintaining the feeling of personalized care,” said Peter Schulam, MD, Yale New Haven Hospital chief of Urology and a member of the committee overseeing the CARE initiative.

As phase two planning proceeds, Yale Medicine CARE Center project team members will contact physicians and appropriate staff.

Once departments are integrated into the CARE Center, department staff should use the referring provider line, 877-925-3637 (877-YALE-MDS) and select the provider option, #2. Please note: Office staff should not call from a personal phone, since their own Epic information will be displayed to the CARE Center scheduler.