Patient Access Week: Rethinking How Patients Get Through the Front Door

Patient Access Week, celebrated each April, was established in 1982 by the National Association of Healthcare Access Management (NAHAM) to recognize the professionals who serve as the first point of contact in healthcare.

These teams handle scheduling, registration, and patient communication, often shaping the very first impression of care. As NAHAM frames it, they are essential to the “patient experience” and overall healthcare journey.

But more than 40 years later, the system they support is under increasing strain.

Today, patient access still relies heavily on phone calls and manual workflows. That creates a growing gap between demand and capacity. In many organizations, call centers handle thousands of interactions daily, and even small inefficiencies like hold times or call abandonment, can result in hundreds of patients not getting through.

And that’s the real issue: access is still fragile at the first interaction.

Patient access teams are expected to manage high volumes, repetitive requests, and constant interruptions all while delivering a seamless experience. At the same time, patients expect immediacy. When they can’t reach a provider quickly, they don’t wait, they drop off.

The result is a system where:

• Patients struggle to connect
• Staff are overwhelmed
• Access breaks down before care even begins
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Patient Access Week is a reminder not just to recognize these teams, but to rethink the systems around them.

Because improving access isn’t just about adding more staff or optimizing workflows.
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It requires acknowledging the sustained pressure on intake and access teams who are managing constant call volume, repetitive administrative work, and rising patient expectations all at once.

Real progress comes from taking a hard look at how access is delivered today and where modernization can meaningfully reduce that burden—whether through automation, better workflows, or systems designed to handle demand without relying entirely on staff capacity.

Want to evaluate your patient access experience?

Download our Patient Access Checklist to see where your system stands, and what to fix first

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