Workflow redesign at Bon Secours Mercy Health created 10,400 new annual slots
Bon Secours Mercy Health added 10,400 annual appointment slots by changing how outpatient imaging and therapy visits were scheduled, templated, and managed. The gain came without major new spending, a reminder that capacity constraints in health systems often reflect process design as much as staffing levels or physical space.
The example lands squarely in the operational heart of modern care delivery. Outpatient access problems are frequently treated as a headcount issue, yet the bottleneck may sit inside the template, the handoff, or the scheduling rule set. When those friction points are removed, the same clinical workforce can move more patients through the system without diluting care.
Access gains came from the work already inside the system
The improvement at Bon Secours Mercy Health centered on scheduling workflows, appointment templates, and broader operational processes in hospital-based outpatient imaging and therapy services. By adjusting how visits were structured and filled, the health system reclaimed capacity that had been trapped inside inefficiency rather than absent from the schedule entirely.
A 10,400-slot increase is not a cosmetic change. For patients waiting on diagnostic imaging or therapy, access determines whether care starts promptly or is delayed long enough for symptoms to worsen, recovery to slow, or follow-up to fracture. In high-volume outpatient settings, small reductions in scheduling waste can translate into substantial clinical and operational gains across a year.
The lesson is visible in the mechanics. When appointment templates do not match real-world demand, when workflows require unnecessary manual intervention, or when scheduling variation leaves openings unfilled, capacity leaks out of the system one slot at a time. Those leaks are especially costly in ambulatory services, where throughput depends on precision, timing, and the ability to match supply with patient need.
Capacity problems often reflect workflow problems
A central theme in the piece is that many apparent capacity shortages are not solved by adding more resources. They are solved by redesigning the work. That distinction matters because health systems under pressure often respond to congestion with hiring, outsourcing, or new software when the underlying problem is an inefficient process that can be simplified.
Manual steps, inconsistent adoption of tools, and poorly governed technology can all reduce access without announcing themselves as obvious failures. A scheduling team may appear busy all day while still leaving appointment time unused. Clinicians may be waiting on administrative work that does not add clinical value. Technology may exist, but if the workflow around it is broken, the system still underperforms.
One sentence captures the operational truth with unusual clarity: digitizing a broken process rarely fixes it.
That is why workflow analysis is so often more valuable than another layer of technology. In imaging and therapy, where appointments depend on duration, room availability, staffing, and patient readiness, even modest process redesign can restore efficiency that had been hidden behind routine variation.
Underused technology can leave value on the table
The article also points to a broader problem across health systems: organizations often use only part of the capability already built into their electronic health records and related platforms. If a system is operating at 60% to 70% of available EHR capability, the missing value is not theoretical. It represents unused functions, missed automation opportunities, and avoidable manual work that continues to burden staff.
That gap is clinically relevant because underused technology can reinforce access problems instead of easing them. When scheduling rules are not optimized, when templates are not aligned with demand, or when governance is weak, the technology does not fail in a dramatic way. It fails quietly, by allowing inefficiency to become normal.
Bon Secours Mercy Health’s experience shows what happens when a health system looks directly at those hidden losses. The organization identified scheduling friction and workflow variation that were suppressing access. Once those barriers were addressed, capacity expanded without the need for a large capital infusion.
Adoption, governance, and change management decide whether investments pay off
The article’s broader argument is that value does not come from technology alone. It comes from adoption, governance, workflow alignment, and sustained operational ownership. Health systems may buy similar platforms, but their results diverge depending on how well those tools are embedded into daily practice.
That principle matters across imaging, therapy, device integration, analytics, and artificial intelligence. A new tool can only improve care if people use it correctly, if the process around it is efficient, and if leaders monitor whether it is delivering the intended result. Without that discipline, expensive infrastructure can coexist with stagnant performance.
Baylor Scott & White Health’s device integration and EHR adoption effort is presented as another example of the same principle: framing implementation as change management rather than simple deployment improved adoption and set the stage for longer-term success. In other words, the clinical and operational return depended less on the purchase itself than on the organization’s ability to absorb it.
What health systems can take from the Bon Secours Mercy Health example
The practical implication is straightforward. Before adding more technology, more staff, or more complexity, health systems should ask whether existing tools are being used to their full capacity. In many organizations, the quickest route to more access is not a new platform but a cleaner process.
That approach is especially relevant now, as workforce shortages and financial pressures continue to narrow the margin for inefficiency. Every empty slot, delayed visit, and redundant manual task carries an opportunity cost. In outpatient settings, those losses accumulate quickly and are felt by patients long before they show up in a budget report.
Bon Secours Mercy Health’s added 10,400 appointment slots offer a concrete example of what disciplined process redesign can achieve. The result was not a new service line or a major expansion project. It was the recovery of capacity that had been there all along, waiting to be unlocked by better workflow design.
The remaining challenge for other systems is less about whether this can be done and more about whether leaders are willing to examine the operational habits that keep capacity from surfacing in the first place.