Here is Cortico’s first podcast from our own Arun and Ashley, discussing how to rebuild and sustain medical clinic booking volumes during and after the pandemic.
You can access the podcast audio here
Transcript
Arun 0:
So hi all out there. Today we’re gonna start the podcast. And our topic today is talking about virtual healthcare, and its role in the world and how we’re going to rebuild and sustain medical practices during the difficult times. My name is Arun, and I work at Cortico, and I’m here with Ashley. We’ve actually both work in clinics before, and now we’re involved in virtual patient engagement. Give us your professional background, how do you end up here?
Ashley 0:32
I’ve been in healthcare for the last eight years, I started off as recruiting doctors, marketing for medical clinics, and then I ended up becoming an operations manager for a medical clinic for some time. And then down the road, I ended up opening up my own medical clinic with a business partner of mine who’s a medical director. We kind of wanted to shake up the system and make it more integrated. We wanted to create a platform where it was like a one-stop shop for patients. So yeah, been doing that for last little while, and then COVID happened.
Arun 1:18
Today, actually, we’re going to be talking about how to sustain and to possibly rebuild our practices during the difficult times, including COVID and maybe other times that will come up in the future.
Ashley 1:30
So when we had the lockdown, I had all of the physicians back in the clinic, all eight of them, and they were all working virtually. I had my MOAs that were you know, in office are the only ones working in the office, and everybody was working from home. Everyone was still seeing their numbers because again, when you build a clinic up, it has to be reputable. You have to provide quality customer service, you got to really, really, really push for those Google reviews. Because, I mean, my clinic was integrated. So, if I’m a patient, and I want to go see a doctor, and it’s a weekend and it’s summer, and I can’t get in and you’re a walk-in clinic in Coquitlam, you want your clinic to be the first clinic to pop up. And the only way that that first clinic’s going to pop up is your reviews. You have to have a five star clinic to run a successful practice.
Arun 2:27
Exactly, and especially the new patients, right, because, there’s one thing to be said about the patients that you have existing that are going to book appointments and everything like that. But the revenue from the new patients is going to be the really big difference. Especially when you have doctors who are saying we want more patients, we want to we want to be busy, and it’s just difficult for the patients to connect with them.
Ashley 2:51
Exactly. So my thing is, and this is going to sound kind of funny, but I don’t hire MOAs for certificates. I end up hiring people that work in the service industry like waitresses, waiters, bartenders, I hired them. Why? Because they provide quality customer service. Anyone can go and get a Medical Office Assistant certificate, but it’s all about organically being pleasant and having that quality customer service. And I trained them very, very well. And the thing is, when a patient leaves happy, that’s what I kind of go, “Hey, you know, if you had such a great service, could you do you mind leaving a Google review for us?” And they would leave Google reviews and they left phenomenal reviews. And again, before I joined the clinic, it was I think, 2.3 stars, and within three to four months, and it took that long, but it ended up actually becoming a five star clinic. So I had every doctor seeing their desired numbers, even during the difficult times, even during summer, which is like the slowest time for walk-in doctors and family doctors because they don’t see their numbers, right? It’s summer and everyone’s vacationing. But, bringing in virtual health into a clinic during these difficult times during COVID and summer when it’s slow, it helps. Because I can be in Penticton on my canoe and I have a rash and I want to see my doctor, how do you do it? Go on your smartphone, book your appointment, and you see your doctor. So it’s benefiting patients, it’s benefiting doctors, it’s benefiting growth within the clinic.
Arun 4:53
And I think virtual health just expands your circle, right?
Ashley 4:58
You know what I feel Arun? I feel like a lot of doctors are not familiar with the pay module when it comes to virtual health, and they think that they’re not getting paid enough. But little do they know, is that they’re actually getting paid a little more than when patients are going to the clinic.I mean, back in the day, no, it was half the visit. But now, it’s difficult for, patients to go to clinics, because of what’s happening right now. But doctors are actually getting paid a little more now. Because, I mean, if they’re, if they have a cough-and-cold, and they suspect COVID, and it’s coming back as COVID you know, you can bill more. So, the reason why I want to talk about this right now is because I feel like a lot of doctors need to be in the loop of the payment module, in BC, or all over Canada, when it comes down to virtual health. Back in the day a patient broke his leg, and he can’t come to the clinic for a follow-up. So they call their doctor and, it was like half of the billing of an office visit. But now it’s pretty much the same.
Arun 6:20
Wow. Can you touch on the Ontario pay module?
Ashley 6:26
So once upon a time, I did have a few doctors that were coming from Ontario to BC. And I was like, “What’s going on? Why is everyone coming here from Ontario?” And then I noticed a lot of my colleagues from different clinics were asking me, “If you have a doctor that’s looking for more work, please send them to my clinic.” I was like, “What’s wrong? Why are doctors leaving your clinic?” And they’re like, “No, they’re going to the east coast.” So it boiled down to the pay module health care; it changes rapidly. I don’t know when it changes, but it does change rapidly. Because a pregnancy test could be more than $4, which is like $4 in BC, (I don’t know how much it is now). But it could be $4 in BC, and it could be, I don’t know, $20 in the East Coast. So that’s what’s changing rapidly, right? And instead of doctors moving back and forth, back and forth, virtual health, honestly works. It works, and it’s so powerful, because you could be sitting in Vancouver, okay, you could be on a bench at the seawall, seeing your patients and billing in Ontario. You could be seeing your patients in Ontario virtually, and billing that. So instead of coming and going, you have that opportunity to bill. And stay comfortable and stay happy where you’re living, instead of going back and forth.
Arun 8:07
How are these Ontario doctors finding your clinic? Because your clinics in BC, right? Is it in Surrey?
Ashley
No, Coquitlam.
Arun
From Coquitlam, BC, which is in the lower mainland. So how did how did the Ontario clinicians, probably from Toronto and Ottawa, find you in particular?
Ashley 8:31
Google. Coquitlam is a very diverse place in Vancouver. I live out here, I love it here. How do they find me? on Google; I mean, I’ve asked. Three of my practitioners, one was from Saskatchewan, one was from Perth, Australia, and the other one was from Ohio. And when they emailed me, I always asked, “How’d you find us?” “Google.” They Google clinics in Coquitlam and boom, because of those reviews, my clinic was the first one to pop up. And that’s where they want to work! Because no doctor wants to work at a 0.5 star clinic, they want to work in a clinic that’s reputable. Because that’s not only going to make the clinic busy, but it’s also going to help them grow their practice.
Arun 9:36
It’s interesting that you bring it up because we conducted some internal study and found that new patients, when they’re looking for clinics, go for clinics with higher Google reviews. But I think clinicians especially want to see high Google reviews and a high volume of high Google reviews. They want to know that there’s good staff and good service, because it’s going to affect them directly, because that’s their workplace.
Ashley 10:09
You know, when I started in healthcare I used to work for this one company, and I was marketing and recruiting doctors for them. And I remember they opened up a bunch of clinics, and the one clinic that was struggling, was a clinic that they opened in the lower mainland, which is not busy at all. I mean, there’s no traffic, there’s no transit. It was in the middle of nowhere. And it was beside a shopping mall, which, made it kind of busy, but there was only one doctor working there. And I remember, I was like, “How can I get this clinic going?” I mean, the patients were awesome. They were nice. The numbers that we were seeing, like there was quality customer service. But I was like, "How do we bring in more practitioners? How do we get this clinic going? And organically, people were actually leaving reviews. And then I was like, Okay, I can kind of see the numbers slowly going up. And then I kind of pushed it more. So to everyone that was leaving, “Please leave a review!” And within six months, Arun, we went from one doctor, to five doctors working full time. And why? Because everyone, every patient that was leaving had quality customer service, had a good visit, they were leaving Google reviews because we were pushing that. And those doctors that found us, they found us. I never recruited anybody. They found us, they hit me up. They’re like, “Hey, do you have any walk-in hours? Can I come and work?” And I was like, “You know what? Wow.” I was like, “How is this all happening?” And I remember sitting down with this one female doctor, and she goes, “This is like quite the establishment.” And I was like, really? I’m like, “How did you find us? You called us?” And she’s just like, “Oh, I just [searched] ‘Coquitlam walk-in doctors’ or ‘Coquitlam walk-in clinic’ and your clinic was the first one to pop up.” And then I remember the owners were like, “How is this clinic, that has zero traffic, busier and more successful than the clinic that is in the city, that has a SkyTrain station, that has a hospital two seconds away?” Anyways, when it comes down to health care, at the end of the day, somebody is coming to your clinic because they need help. And when someone needs help, it is your duty as a human in health care to provide for that. And putting a smile on one patient’s face, after leaving the clinic, it grows on you to keep doing the same thing. Because, at the end of the day, people are going through a lot of stuff right now and I feel like if you provide quality customer service it’s going to not just make your clinic successful, but it makes your community happy. And that’s what drives more doctors, more patient, new patients, to your clinic to keep coming back. So I mean, it’s not even about the money. It’s not even about that. It’s just about putting that smile on someone’s face at the end of the day. And you know, giving them reassurance that everything’s going to be okay. That’s what it boils down to. And I feel like that’s what everybody needs right now is reassurance.
Arun
What do we talk about next?
Ashley
Convenience?
Arun 13:57
I guess so. Because we were talking about reaching a wider audience, and it allows you to reach patients who are unable to reach you for some other reason, like maybe it’s difficult to get to clinics sometimes you have to take time out of your schedule, right?
Ashley 14:17
Exactly. At the end of the day. If someone’s vacationing, if someone’s grandma is ill and she can’t get out of the house, or grandpa, they can’t get out of the house. And, virtual health is not just a convenience tool for patients or for healthcare outside
Arun 14:36
convenience tool. Only exclusively. It’s also for some patients, it’s the way they can get the best quality of care that they can.
Ashley 14:45
Exactly. The thing is, for example, my grandma, who had dementia, diabetes, like really bad diabetes, and there’s days that she can’t get out of the house like those days that she couldn’t like, leave the house. And, you know, what do we do? Like, does it what and her doctor, for example, her doctor is either vacationing or he’s somewhere else. And she really needs to see a doctor and walk-in doctors won’t see her because of her chronic illnesses and whatnot, what do you do? Like, what do you do? That’s where virtual health is not just the convenience tool, but it’s actually the best thing that was ever invented. And that’s where virtual health is not just a convenience tool, but it’s literally a very important component in today’s life, where my grandma can easily get her prescription, virtually. And of course, I have to go and get it, or now it can be delivered. But what I’m saying is virtual health is not just a convenience tool. It’s literally here to stay. It’s not going anywhere, and it’s going to help so many people, so many people that find it difficult going to the clinic physically. And during these difficult times, when clinics are either closing, shutting down early, or doctors don’t see their cap, it’s here to stay, and it’s not going anywhere. And I’m so privileged and so happy that I am working with a virtual healthcare company that engages and helps patients like this. And we help build practices up again, during these difficult times. So yeah, it’s here to stay, it’s not going anywhere.
Arun
So once this is all over, if you think virtual health, then Google reviews will be a big thing going forward.
Ashley 16:51
100%, I feel like a lot of clinics are, you know, they’re getting back on their feet again, and I mean, not just clinics, businesses everywhere, they’re just slowly getting back on their feet again after closing their practices and reopening their practices. I think that by providing quality health care to your community, those Google reviews will be coming in organically. And once they’ll start coming in organically, you’re going to have practitioners that are going to want to work for you. And not just practitioners, everybody’s going to want to work for you. I’ve done it. I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and I grew a successful practice. And when you do that, it makes you feel good. And bringing in virtual health. And those qualities and virtual health, having that available for your patients is phenomenal. Because at the end of the day, everyone’s happy, everyone gets what they need to feel better. And that’s good health care is right? You’re here to not fix people, but to hear them out and make them feel good, and live a healthy balanced lifestyle. That’s it.
**Arun 18:15
To conclude, it sounds like virtual health is going to be a big part, an online presence and a big part of your business going forward. And getting a Google reviews to improve them, connecting with patients is ultimately helping to serve more patients in the future. So Ashley, anything else you want to say or reiterate possibly?
Ashley 18:39
I really hope that every clinic that is reopening, you know during these times, I hope they do consider virtual health because it’s such a key component to our time right now. And I wish everyone can reopen and be successful at the end of the day and provide that quality customer service in healthcare.
Arun 19:05
It’s great to have you on the team where we’re all working toward that goal. This is Arun and Ashley from Cortico Health technologies. Bye for now!
Ashley
Thank you!
