RESET provides timely, effective patient care Published July 26, 2018 By Senior Airman Arielle Vasquez 50th Space Wing Public Affairs SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The 21st Medical Squadron has revamped the way their clinic operates by initiating a program called RESET, which was implemented March of this year. “RESET is a grassroots program which was developed and released to Air Force Medical Service late last year,” said Capt. Tyler Maxwell, group practice manager with the 21st MDS. “The program gives the opportunity to providers to take care of today’s patients today.” Ramstein Air Base, Germany, started RESET and provided the building blocks of the program to improve patient care, clinical work setting and efficiency. The program stands for rewarding, efficiency, setting priorities and empowering team members. Each day, the 21st MDS provider teams review all scheduled appointments. Once factors are determined, including patient’s health history and reason for visit, providers will give patients a call if they believe they can assist via a virtual appointment. “If the patient agrees to do a virtual appointment, the provider has taken care of that patient instead of when their actual appointment is scheduled,” Maxwell said. “This allows an appointment slot to be opened back up for another patient to schedule. If this happens multiple times during the day, there is more access to appointment times.” The RESET tools allow for a concentrated four-day work week with 10 appointments per day instead of having an average of 18 appointments per day due to the introduction of virtual appointments. “For a military setting, I think this program is very effective,” said Paul Jachimek, physician assistant with the 21st MDS. “Not only does it relieve stress and workload for the providers, but it also promotes easier access to care.” According to Maxwell, the 21st MDS will no longer practice cross-booking with the RESET program in place. “What happened in the past when providers practiced cross booking is patients would see providers that they were not familiar with and vice versa,” he said. “Now that we no longer cross book, provider continuity and patient satisfaction has increased. Providers now have the opportunity to reduce their workload for the week and incorporate efficiency that is unprecedented in AFMS.” Throughout all military treatment facilities, the standard to treat chronic issues is seven days. Since the implementation of RESET, the 21st MDS has surpassed that goal by treating patients within four days. According to Maxwell and Jachimek, there has been positive feedback since the program took effect. “The great thing about RESET is that provider teams accomplish the same, if not more, work - it is just done in a different way,” Jachimek said. “All around, the implementation of this program is beneficial for both providers and patients.” Within four months at Schriever AFB, the RESET program continues to improve efficiency and patient care, keeping Airmen mission ready now and into the future. “Patient safety is our North Star,” Maxwell said. “A huge part of patient safety is access to appointments and RESET accomplishes this priority. Even though this program is so new, it has been highly successful for us so far and we are excited to see it progress. Best of all, it gives patients the care they deserve. Healthcare is one of the greatest benefits our active duty members, dependents and retirees receive. If they can’t get the most out of this benefit, that’s a foul on our part. Effective healthcare is not a nicety, it’s their right.”