TY - JOUR T1 - Primary Care Patients’ and Staff’s Perceptions of Self-Rooming as Alternative to Waiting Rooms JF - The Annals of Family Medicine JO - Ann Fam Med SP - 46 LP - 53 DO - 10.1370/afm.2909 VL - 21 IS - 1 AU - Edmond Ramly AU - Sandra A. Kamnetz AU - C. Elizabeth Perry AU - Mark A. Micek AU - Brian G. Arndt AU - Jennifer E. Lochner AU - Sarah Davis AU - Elizabeth R. Trowbridge AU - Maureen A. Smith Y1 - 2023/01/01 UR - http://www.annfammed.org/content/21/1/46.abstract N2 - PURPOSE Most patients are escorted to exam rooms (escorted rooming) although patients directing themselves to their exam room (self-rooming) saves patient and staff time while increasing patient satisfaction. This study assesses patient and staff perceptions after pragmatic implementation of self-rooming.METHODS In October-December 2020, we surveyed patients and staff in 25 primary care clinics after our institution expanded self-rooming from 4 specially built clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured surveys asked about rooming process used, rooming process preferred, and perceptions of self-rooming compared with escorted rooming.RESULTS Most patients (n = 1,561) preferred self-rooming (86%), especially among patients aged <65 years and in family medicine clinics. Few patients felt less welcomed (10.6%), less cared about (6.8%), more isolated (15.6%), more lost/confused (7.6%), or more frustrated (3.2%) with self-rooming compared with escorted rooming. Early-adopter clinics that implemented self-rooming ≤2016 had even lower rates of patients feeling more isolated, lost/confused, or frustrated with self-rooming compared with escorted rooming.Over one-half of staff (n = 241; 180 clinical, 61 nonclinical) preferred self-rooming (59%) and thought most patients liked self-rooming (65.8%), especially among clinical staff and in early adopter clinics (≤2016). Few staff reported worse waiting times for patients (12.4%), medical assistants (MAs) (15.9%), and clinicians (16.4%) or worse crowding in waiting areas (1.7%) and hallways (10.1%). Unlike patient-reported confusion (7.6%), most staff thought self-rooming led to more patient confusion (63.8%), except in early-adopter clinics (44.4%).CONCLUSIONS Self-rooming is a patient-centered innovation that is also acceptable to staff. We demonstrated that pragmatic implementation is feasible across primary care without expensive technology or specially designed buildings. ER -