Column: Mark Ciota, Hometown Health

You’ve told us you’re waiting too long on the phone and in line when you are scheduling an appointment, have questions or are checking in for your appointment. We hear you and want you to know that we have hired more staff to assist you. They will enter and verify information before your visit that will stay in our system to reduce your waiting time.

We went live with a new electronic medical record (which we call EMR) in April, which has temporarily slowed down our registration process and phone response time, as we check the accuracy of patient information and become more proficient with the system.

Getting this information up front saves time and money as the correct insurance companies are notified and letters, test results and statements go to the right addresses.

We are slowly making progress in reducing our wait times. In fact, in most areas we have significantly reduced the number of dropped calls, where you hung up because we didn’t promptly answer. That’s a good start, anyway. We also want to assure you that we take your comments seriously and they are the basis for several changes currently under consideration.

If you’d like to contact us with further feedback, please go to mayoclinichealthsystem.org, click on Albert Lea and then “Feedback,” on the left hand side of the homepage.

Mark R. Ciota, M.D., is CEO of Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea.