The idea of patient centered scheduling has arrived. Of course, many courageous advocates and innovative leaders have been there for decades. But a convergence of factors is giving the concept its best opportunity yet to become simply the way we all get the care we need, when we need it. There is no doubt that providers are holding the cards right now. There is also no doubt that no one party in the complex health care system can make this transition alone. It will take the power of partnerships.

A recent report by the Institute of Medicine has validated the argument that there ought to be one place any of us can go to get easy access to all of the providers that we rely on for our health care.

Not sure about this yet? Think about it this way:

The IOM report is titled: Transforming Healthcare Scheduling and Access: Getting to Now. It was requested by the Veterans Administration in response to the widely reported scandal involving scheduling delays that negatively affected the healthcare of more than 100,000 U.S. military veterans.

Among the IOM report’s Findings and Recommendations:

• Healthcare in the U.S. must be “patient-centered care” and “timely.”
• The consequences of our antiquated scheduling system include “negative effects on health outcomes.”
• One of the causes of harmful scheduling delays in our current system is that it is built on “provider-focused scheduling” and not “patient-centered scheduling.”

What if, instead of using Open Table, all restaurants just told their patrons to look for table reservation times on their websites? Not a bad start, but not very helpful either. That’s how we feel about the tremendous progress represented by patient portals and better provider web sites. It is a step in the right direction but can you imagine managing your family’s care by juggling 5, 6 or 7 different provider portals or mobile apps? Good but not nearly good enough.

Here on Everseat’s blog – the Hot Seat – we will continue writing about ideas in “patient centered scheduling” that leading researchers, thinkers, patients and providers all over the country are developing. We are proud to partner with many of them.

This week we are pleased to announce the launch of our partnership with athenahealth and its “More Disruption Please” (MDP) program. Together, our two companies will work to connect athenahealth’s growing network of more than 67,000 health care providers with the capabilities of Everseat to offer patients easier scheduling access and real-time notifications about open appointments.

We look forward to working with any patient, provider or practice management organization on making people healthier by making patient access easier.

Thanks to our partners at athenahealth, we will be working with more providers and patients than ever. We look forward to helping everyone get better results.

Read more about Everseat’s partnership with athenahealth and about our capabilities that could make a difference for your practice or for your family.