Which of the following best describes a ready-to-use measure for evaluating access to care in an MTF?

• A. Number of emails sent by staff.
• B. Time spent in staff meetings.
• C. Age of the facility.
• D. Patient wait times; to assess access to care and identify bottlenecks for improvement.

Answer: (D)

Access to care is best judged by how quickly patients can obtain the services they need. A ready-to-use measure should directly reflect that experience. Patient wait times do exactly that: they measure the actual time from when a patient requests care or arrives to when they receive service. This makes the metric straightforward to collect from scheduling and patient-flow data, easy to benchmark across clinics, and highly actionable for improvement efforts. If wait times rise, teams can pinpoint bottlenecks in scheduling, provider availability, or patient flow and target those areas for change.

The other options don’t capture the patient’s access experience. The number of emails staff send tracks internal communications, not how quickly patients access care. Time in staff meetings reflects internal processes rather than patient access. Age of the facility is a static attribute that doesn’t indicate current access or how well services are being delivered today.