How HotDoc Helped Alevia Medical Weight Loss Automate their Systems for Growth
Alevia Medical Weight Loss is a medically-assisted weight loss clinic, headed by GP and Practice Principal, Dr. Catherine Bacus. Since opening its doors a year ago, Catherine has grown the clinic from 1 to 6 GPs. She has also branched out to a second site and taken on a psychologist and 3 medical receptionists.
Catherine explains, “A year ago, it was just me at the clinic. Now, we’ve got 6 practitioners, which is really exciting. We actually have 2 doctors starting just today. They’re all dedicated doctors who love what they do. They love seeing their patients kick goals and get the results they want.
“Our core values are care and compassion, and that really sums up our doctors. A lot of our patients have struggled with their weight for a long time and have been frustrated by previous dietary efforts, so we really try to step into their shoes and make the weight loss journey a bit more gentle and safe for them.
“We do a thorough assessment of the patient to find out what’s the particular cause of their weight gain, whether it’s depression, sleep apnoea, an iron deficiency, diet problems etc. We then provide a science-based treatment plan for them.”
The decision to move to HotDoc
Growing at a clipping rate, Catherine first turned to HotDoc because she was looking for a system that was easy for her patients to use and something that was less manually intensive for her staff. She explains:
“Really we were looking to improve efficiency in our practice. We wanted a system that we could look at in a glance, which showed us who had confirmed their appointments and who hadn’t. A system that removed a lot of the manual work.”
“For instance, patient Reminders. I wanted something that sent out reminders automatically and that quickly showed us who had confirmed and who had cancelled, so at a glance we could see who we might need to follow up. Rather than our receptionists having to call every patient. HotDoc does that for us brilliantly.
“I also wanted something that patients would find easy to use, which we’ve achieved. Patients can jump online at their own convenience and book an appointment whenever they want to.”
Automation for scalability
While it was HotDoc’s Reminders system and patient app that initially attracted Catherine to HotDoc, it was a host of other time-saving products that took Alevia Medical Weight Loss to the next level of automation, and won Catherine and her team over.
She explains, “HotDoc has been a great help with systemising our clinic. Something that’s really important to us. Because we’re small, we know that if we don’t iron out the inefficiencies now, they’re just going to be magnified as we grow.
"Getting the systems right now means we’ve actually got a greater ability to grow. I think this will lead to some big time and big cost savings in the future."
“For instance, the New Patient Registration forms have been really handy. It’s saved on scanning and all those issues around trying to track down the form because it becomes a soft copy immediately. Plus it goes into the patient’s record pretty quickly.
“There’s also no double entry or errors in the intake form. So when the patient fills it in, it automatically goes into the PMS. That really saves a lot of time because before there were errors entering date of births or phone numbers. Now, all of that’s avoided.”
“Plus patients can fill it out in their own time, which means our day isn’t pushed out if patients are running late from having to fill out a physical form.”
Improved profitability
Catherine also credits HotDoc’s automation as helping lift Alevia’s bottom line.
She explains, “I think HotDoc has improved our profitability too because we have less lost income because of the reminders. In the past, when a patient cancelled, there was no opportunity to refill that appointment.
“Whereas now, when a patient cancels the spot is made immediately available so another patient can fill it. So that’s less lost revenue.”
“Plus, it saves time at the front desk, saves time for our doctors, saves time on errors. So that’s a cost saving too.”
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