One option is electronic consults (or “e-consults”), by which primary care providers leverage standardized forms to get timely input from specialists on symptoms, diagnosis or treatment. Still, this doesn’t mean that patients-or health systems-should accept eight-month waits to get an opinion from a cardiologist or a dermatologist. For instance, if you think you have a broken ankle, and you schedule a same-day appointment with an orthopedist who turns out to focus exclusively on hand surgery (even though their profile only says 'orthopedic surgeon'), everyone’s time will be wasted.

Unlike primary care physicians, there are some legitimate reasons not to open online scheduling for specialists, especially for confusing or unclear subspecialties. Like tackling any large problem, start with your highest priority: primary care providers with online scheduling who are accepting new patients. Organizations must take the time to get this right, or none of their other efforts to improve online scheduling will make an impact. Accurate data is a prerequisite to providing an excellent patient experience.

It’s often a mess of outdated data from inconsistent sources.

I’m talking about the basics: who works for the system, where they’re located, their phone numbers and their specialties. But health system data-including information about clinicians-is often in disarray. A logistics manager at Walmart could probably tell you in real time how many diaper packages the chain’s stores have on their shelves.

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