Is Your Practice Ready to Automate?

Is Your Practice Ready to
Automate?
Presented by: Dr. Susan Linton & Rob Gilpin

Simplifying and Unifying Communications Through Technology

Agenda

• Introductions
• Housekeeping Rules
• Is Your Practice Ready to Automate?
• Q&A
• Automated Communications
• Webley MD Reminders: Automated appointment reminders
• Webley MD After Hours: Automated answering service
• Q&A

Simplifying & Unifying Communications Through Technology

Housekeeping Rules

• Length: 45 minutes
• Type your questions at any time
• Copies of presentations will be sent to participants


Characteristics of Top Performing Practices

The Annual MGMA Performance and Practices of Successful Medical
Groups Report found that better performing medical practices excelled in
four areas:

1. Profitability and cost management
– Business and strategic planning, careful monitoring of costs
– Looks at and adjusts payor mix, terminates relationship w/ poor payors
2. Productivity, capacity and staffing
– Better performing practices were more likely to use automated telephone
reminder calls (40.3% vs. 18.8%)
– More procedures & high revenue per physician
– Higher physician compensation and benefits
3. Accounts receivable and collections
– Understanding & improving billing
4. Patient satisfaction


Key Ways Practices are Automating

EHR

Eprescriptions Claims/Billing

Practice
Management
Message Appointment
management reminders

Patient
Lab results
registration &
reporting
scheduling


Adoption Patterns by Practice Size

1 to 2 3 to 5 6 to 10 11 to 20 21 to 50 Over 50
MDs MDs MDs MDs MDs MDs
EMR 38% 49% 69% 72% 64% 77%
Ebilling 63% 71% 77% 74% 70% 75%
Eprescribing 28% 33% 42% 39% 52% 59%
Appointment 70% 77% 80% 80% 77% 83%
scheduling
software

Source: Webley MD 2009 survey of medical practices, n = 938


Key Benefits of Automation for Practices

• Instant access

• Better organization of information

• Save time looking for charts, slips of paper, etc.

• Error reduction

• Save space , less paper

• View information without being in the office

• Send information to others quickly

• Improved, secure record keeping


Quantifiable Benefits of Automation for Practices

• Average cost to pull and refile a paper chart = $5
• Average number of chart-pulls for nonvisiting patients (prescription
refills, lab results, phone calls, correspondence) = 60% of the daily pulls
• Average amount of staff time spent to fulfill a medication request
manually = 15 minutes
• Average amount of time to fulfill a medication request with computer
automation = 3 minutes


Quantifiable Benefits of Automation for Practices

• Average time it takes to report one lab result manually = 3 minutes
• Average time it takes to report one lab result automated = 30 seconds
• Medco Health Solutions survey of Boston physicians found that 88% of
those surveyed spent almost 1/3 of phone time responding to calls from
pharmacies regarding prescriptions.


Key Risks of Automation for Practices

• Can be expensive

• Requires extensive staff training

• Disrupts workflow

• Equipment, software that becomes outdated, broken

• Integration issues

• Lack of technical support

• Patient privacy concerns

• Uncertain reception by key stakeholders


MGMA 2010 Health Information Technology Tips

1. Establish your internal EHR/HIT Team and include a nursing
representative
2. Information gathering. Explore other applications of HIT in your
practice; identify opportunities to streamline your practice and
qualify for incentives
3. Identify a physician champion who will rally clinician support
Source: Keynote address by MGMA president, William Jessee, MD, State of the
Medical Practice 2010


Health Information Technology Evaluation Tips

As you consider applications of HIT in your practice, evaluate each
option based on the following:
1. Value/ROI – does the application bring real value to your practice?
Consider the vantage point of key stakeholders.
2. Price/payment terms – are installments an option?
3. Set up/installation time – how long does it take and does it fit
with your needs?
4. Training – will it be easy for your staff to learn how to use the
application? What type of training is provided?
5. Ongoing maintenance – do you have to worry about updates? Is
technical support included?
6. Reputation of the vendor – will the vendor be there a year from
now, 5 years from now?

Unsure about Automation?

• It’s okay to start small with routine tasks where
automation can save considerable money and/or time
• Be sure to track results
• As you see the benefits of automation, others at the
practice will be more open to additional investments in
automation


The Webley Mission: Automating Communications

Webley provides certainty, convenience, and clarity by simplifying the
communications experience for our customers one vertical market at a time.

Webley MD After Hours Webley MD Reminders
(Inbound Messages) (Outbound Messages)
• Message management • Automated reminders
• Unified by voice & e-mail
communications • Send notifications
• Message notifications after hours when
sent to pager, e-mail, patients are home
phone • Lowers no show rate
• Custom caller by 30%
greetings • Better tracking of
• On call status changes cancellations,
by phone confirmations


Webley MD Reminders Best Practice Goals

Grow Improve Office Increase
Revenues Efficiency Patient
• Decrease no • Less time spent Satisfaction
shows by 30% or on the phone • Flexible ,
more • More time for in- personalized
• Increase revenue office patient communications
• Generate care (voice, e-mail)
additional visits • Reduce postage • Provide greater
• Improve cash costs convenience to
flow • Easy tracking of patients
appointment • Improved
confirmations & communication
cancellations • Shorter wait
times


Traditional vs. Automated Reminders

Manual Automated Savings Qty/Month

Phone Calls $0.55 $0.15 $0.40 ?
Postcards $0.50 $0.15 $0.35 ?
Letters $1.00 $0.15 $0.85 ?


Standard Appointment Reminder

“Hello, this is XYZ Health Clinic calling to remind <Patient First / Last
Name> of your appointment with us on <Day> <Month> <Date> at
<Time>. To confirm this appointment, please press the one key now.

If you are unable to keep this appointment for any reason, please call
us as soon as possible at 444-646-8888 to cancel or to
reschedule. This will allow us to offer that appointment time to
another patient. Again, that number is 444-646-8888. We look
forward to seeing you!”


Examples of Response Options

• To confirm this appointment, press 1 now.

• To hear this message in Spanish, press 2 now.

• To repeat this message, press 3 now.


Example of a Typical ROI for 3 Physician Practice

Appointments Per Day: 75
Cost of Lost Appointment: $75
Average No Show Rate: 5%
Total Monthly Revenue Generated: $118,125
Revenue Lost Based On 5% No Show: $5,906
Webley Recoverable Revenue @ 30%: $1,772/ Month
Cost of Webley @ $0.19 / Call $299/ Month

Net Profit/ Month: $1,473

Net Profit/ Year: $17,676

Save Time, Money, Improve Office Efficiency & Patient Satisfaction!


Webley MD Benefits Patients and Practices

Patient Benefits

• Increased access to caregivers
• Enhanced patient experience
• Shorter wait times

Practice Benefits

• Saves time & money
• Improves cash flow
• See more patients in less time
• Reduce print & postage costs
• Creates competitive advantage
• More time to focus on pressing matters
• Accommodates practices of any size
• SAAS model, no equipment to purchase or administrate
• Immediate ROI


The Importance of After Hours Care

What happens when your patients call after hours?
• Patients still require timely clinical advice.
• Studies have shown that 22% - 44% of after hours calls involve
potentially serious problems.
• Urgent calls are not always forwarded to on-call
physicians.
• According to a study in the Journal of Family Practice, 50% of calls
not forwarded by the answering service to the on-call physician
could be classified as needing immediate contact with the
physician.
• Answering services usually fax call reports to offices the
next business day.
• In other words, physicians usually receive the message hours after
the patient calls, if the answering service did not forward the call.


The Traditional Way of Handling After Hours Calls

Answering Machine /
Live Answering Service Voicemail
* Inconsistent customer service skills, high
turnover rates * No find me or follow me features
* Inaccurate message transcriptions * Risk that box/machine is full & can’t record
new messages
* Price typically includes fixed number of
minutes, additional minutes billed at a much * Providing another phone number to call
higher rate poses an additional obstacle for an anxious
patient
* Costly overages every month
* No or limited notification of new messages


The Advanced Way of Handling After Hours Calls

Webley MD After Hours:
• Faster, more accurate messages, notifications by pager, phone, e-mail
• Every call handled courteously and consistently
• Caller ID, call screening features
• 9 custom greetings allow you to greet each caller with a familiar voice
• Lets callers tag messages as urgent
• Better call routing.
• Set up voicemail for different departments/functions, physicians, etc.
• Change on-call status with a quick phone call
• Natural language interactions allow callers to state what they want the
system to do.
• As easy as having a conversation.
• Service is monitored 24/7 with backup and disaster recovery services.
• Subscriber based, no equipment to purchase, nothing to maintain


Key Benefits of Webley MD After Hours

Better Patient Care
• Improved communication with patients
• Quicker response time to after hours calls
• Eliminate inaccurate messages
• Hear the message exactly as conveyed
• Never miss or lose an important message
• Ensure continuity of care

Better Message Management
• Better call routing
• Easier, unified message management
• Change on-call status with quick phone call
• Screen all callers


Webley MD After Hours Script

“You have reached the office of East Bay Family Medical.
Our office is open Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 4
p.m.. If this is a medical emergency, hang up and dial 911.
If you have an urgent medical problem and need to reach
the on-call physician, please stay on the line and the on-call
physician will be notified of your call. Thank you for calling
our office.”

Create multiple message types for holidays, weekends,
lunch, or emergency closings.


Example: Checking Your Messages

1. Call the Department Mailbox toll-free
number
2. When your Personal Assistant begins
speaking, press the * key
3. Say or enter the Department’s 4-digit
security code
4. When your Personal Assistant says “What
would you like to do?” say “Listen to
Messages” or touch-tone (10)


Example: Setting the Doctor On Call

1. Call the Department Mailbox toll-free number
2. When your Personal Assistant begins
speaking, press the * key
3. Say or enter the Department’s 4-digit security
code
4. When your Personal Assistant says “What
would you like to do?” touch-tone 7710
5. When prompted say the name or touch-tone
the extension number of your Profile Mailbox


Webley MD After Hours Summary

What happens after your office closes? Webley MD
After Hours is there to:

• Replace or supplement your existing after hours service
• Lets you hear and save the patient messages, much faster
than an answering service
• Available any time (nights, weekends, holidays, lunch)
• Find and follow me feature ensures you get each message
• Immediate notification
• Notify home, office, cell phone, pager, e-mail and more
• Call to quickly change on-call status
• Record your own custom greetings


Webley Corporate Overview

• Founded In 1997
• Industry Pioneer in Advanced Speech Applications:
• Unified Communications
• After Hours Messaging
• Broadcast Messaging
• 7 Advanced Speech Patents
• 50,000 Active Customers
• Delivering 180,000,000 Transactions Per Year
• Fully Redundant Data Centers
• Numerous Awards For Technology Product of the Year


For additional information contact:
Rob Gilpin
National Sales Director, Webley MD
Phone (866) 220-9754
rgilpin@webley.com
www.webley.com

Simplifying and Unifying Communications Through Technology

Is Your Practice Ready to Automate?

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