The Department of Family Medicine (DFM) extends warm congratulations to the UW Health Monona Clinic, the winner of the 2009 James E. Davis Quality Improvement Award.

The award was presented at the 2009 Renner/Hansen awards ceremony on September 23, 2009. It formally recognizes the clinic's success in decreasing wait times and increasing patient satisfaction through a new "no-wait" rooming process.

DFM Clinical Assistant Professor Byron Marquez, DO, piloted "no-wait" rooming at the clinic in January 2009. It allows patients to bypass the waiting room and walk directly to their assigned examination room, where they are greeted shortly thereafter by a medical assistant.

(Read more about the pilot in this Spring 2009 DFM Showcase article: Monona Clinic Pilots No-Wait Patient Rooming.)

The new process resulted in several important outcomes:

• Median wait times decreased by 50% in the first week;
• Patient satisfaction for initial wait times rose to the highest level in 11 months; and
• 94% of patients surveyed in that first week preferred the new process.

Right now, six of the nine clinicians at the Monona clinic use "no-wait" rooming. Discussion are underway about how to incorporate the process at a new clinic, UW Health Yahara, which is scheduled to open in 2010.

The UW Health Monona Clinic team received $500 and a plaque to commemorate the award.