3rd-next-available appointment (days)
Patient Experience & Access
How this indicator is defined
Methodology version v1.0
Mean days until the 3rd-next-available appointment, averaged across the physician's sampled availability during the reporting window. Lower is better.
Mean measured value
The mean of each eligible patient's most recent 3rd-next-available appointment value within the 1-year window. Not a count of patients — an average of a measured value across the eligible cohort.
Data inputs
- 3rd-next-available appointment
Derived from
What this indicator measures— Name, alignment, goal, rationale.
- Indicator nameField 1 — Indicator name
- 3rd-next-available appointment (days)
- AlignmentField 2 — Alignment
- Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) — Advanced Access: 3rd-next-available appointment
- Illustrative synthetic-demo definition pending clinical review
- Strategic goalField 3 — Strategic goal
- Improve timely access to primary care by reducing the wait for a routine appointment.
- RationaleField 5 — Rationale
- The 3rd-next-available appointment is the standard Advanced Access access measure — it reflects true availability better than the next-open slot (which can be a cancellation). Shorter waits reflect better same-week access and fewer avoidable ED visits.
How it's computed— Scoring method, numerator, denominator, inclusions, exclusions.
- NumeratorField 6 — Numerator
- Mean of the sampled 3rd-next-available wait (days) for the physician.
- DenominatorField 7 — Denominator
All active attributed patients age 18+ at reporting-period end.
- Sex eligibility:
- Age range: 18–120
- Active as of reporting-period end: yes
- ExclusionsField 9 — Exclusions
- Urgent same-day triage slots (measured separately).
How patients are attributed— Attribution rule and risk adjustment.
- Attribution ruleField 10 — Attribution rule
- Enrolment (rostered)
- Risk-adjustment modelField 11 — Risk-adjustment model
- None
How comparison works— Peer group, reliability threshold, peer comparator.
- Reliability thresholdField 13 — Reliability threshold
- 20
Data + reporting— Data source, reporting frequency, direction of improvement, limitations.
- Reporting frequencyField 15 — Reporting frequency
- quarterly
- Direction of improvementField 16 — Direction of improvement
- Lower is better
Targets + governance— Target, justification, owner, review, approval, version, notes.
- TargetField 18 — Target
- 5.0 days — the clinic's target for this indicator, set by the product owner.
- Methodology versionField 23 — Methodology version
- v1.0