8.7K Digital Check Ins and 1.6K Digital Forms Completed Through HotDoc in One Month
Customer Story
Anchor Medical
Shabnam Ali (second to left) studied management and international business at university before working in sales and later recruitment. It was during this time in recruitment that her father, a chemical engineer by vocation with an entrepreneurial vision, asked her to help him find some doctors for a third practice he was opening. Shabnam agreed and began work on the task. Ten years later she found herself the co-practice manager to seven clinics.
Anchor Medical has six clinics in North Brisbane and one in Melbourne. Shabnam says, “We’re a family-owned, family-run organisation that fosters a culture of collaboration. We’re a place where our clinicians’ input is always valued and the leadership team strives to go above and beyond to assist our staff in creating win-win outcomes for both themselves and their patients.”
This in fact is how Shabnam first found herself searching for a new online bookings provider. She was trying to solve a problem raised by her staff.
“The clinicians at all of our practices were after a technological solution for check-ins so the admin team had more time to look after their patients,” Shabnam says.
Shopping for the right bookings provider
Shabnam says, “At the time we were using one of the bigger competitors, [they] didn’t have [digital check-in] technology and they couldn’t advise us of when it was coming.
“There were a few other players on the market that had the technology but when we started talking to HotDoc there were a couple of things that stood out to us. One was the fact that someone was able to answer all of our questions and two [the HotDoc team] were really interested in our input and how we did things.
“So originally we came onboard [with HotDoc] for the check-in and the new patient forms, then we realised, ‘Oh, well actually reminders are pretty good as well. So are the bookings and the recalls.
“Obviously we’ve got the whole package now but back then, I remember when we started to work through all the extra things HotDoc offered, we saw the value immediately because of the time it was going to save us—time we were paying for.”
Moving to HotDoc
Shabnam installed HotDoc in just one clinic at first to see how it went.
“We started at one clinic—Eatons Hill—because it has the highest uptake of anything new, the demographic is younger, they use technology more,” Shabnam says.
"Within two weeks we saw increased efficiency—the girls were working a lot smarter, they were able to get a lot of other things done, and when one of them called in sick, it was very manageable."
Shabnam says, “We had a really good success rate and within two weeks we started rolling HotDoc out to all of our clinics. “
Shabnam cites another benefit of getting HotDoc into all of their clinics. “I think our staff really felt heard when HotDoc was introduced,” she says.
Check-In and New Patient Forms
Two of the first products rolled out were Check-In and New Patient Forms.
Shabnam says there was an immediate uptake by patients, especially check-in. “I remember [Brett] our Onboarding Manager thinking there was an error because we were getting so much usage from our HotDoc Kiosk.”
In February, 8,686 patients checked in at one of Anchor Medical’s clinics using a HotDoc Kiosk or mobile check-in. In one site—Eaton Hill—there were 2,497 check-ins in just 28 days. In this same time, 1,643 patients completed new patient registration forms online using HotDoc.
In 30 days (Feb 2020)…
8,686
Digital check-ins completed
1,643
New patient forms completed
463
Patient details updated
Shabnam says, “Once the younger people know that they don’t have to talk to anyone and they can just go onto the iPad and check themselves in, voila, they use it all the time. Me being a young person, I don’t necessarily want to go in and talk to someone, I’d prefer to check-in in my car and walk straight into the surgery and just sit down.”
Online Bookings
Anchor Medical has also rolled out Online Bookings to all of their practices.
In the last 30 days, 5,100 patients booked online for an Anchor Medical clinic using HotDoc. This includes 362 new patients. One doctor alone received 467 online bookings through HotDoc in just one month.
In 30 days (Aug 2020)…
5,100
Total bookings through HotDoc
362
New patients through HotDoc
467
HotDoc bookings for a single doctor
“Convenience for patients is the biggest benefit of online bookings. Patients can book when they want to, they can find their doctor in their own time, and they can choose the appointment type they want,” Shabnam says.
Inform and Broadcast
In the last 30 days, 9,399 educational messages were displayed to patients. These range from educational messages about being COVID-safe through to preventative health alerts encouraging patients to book in for Cervical Screening Tests, Health Assessments, Diabetes Risk Checks etc.
In 30 days (Aug 2020)…
9,399
HotDoc Inform impressions
31
Campaigns seen by patients
2,508
Campaign views by one clinic
Above: A video showing how HotDoc Inform works
Shabnam explains, “We try to do a lot of preventative, opportunistic health and [HotDoc] Inform helps a lot because it’s a way for patients to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ without feeling pressured, it’s indirect and not in your face.”
“It’s a lot easier when you're calling a patient and you know that they’re interested in a specific health service.”
Shabnam says her clinics are also getting a lot of benefit out of SMS Broadcast.
“My sister Nargis Bidgood, who is my co-practice manager, has also used the [HotDoc] Broadcast tool very, very effectively. We did a big flu blast a while ago, and that definitely helped.”
Recalls and Reminders
In the last 30 days, Anchor Medical’s eight clinics have sent a combined 16,954 SMS reminders and 713 SMS recalls.
In 30 days (Aug 2020)…
16,954
HotDoc Reminders sent
75%
patients confirmed attendance
713
HotDoc Recalls sent
Beyond saving time, Shabnam says she finds the audit trail that HotDoc Recalls leaves very handy. “It’s easy and the information is all there, and you can go back if there was something you remembered that you had missed—it gives you a proper trail of what’s happened. And it’s great that it timestamps in the patient’s file. So from a medical legal compliance point of view, you’re fairly well covered.”
Shabnam also mentions a surprising benefit of HotDoc Reminders. “[HotDoc Reminders] has actually helped us clean our data a little bit too because of the way the reminders were set up—we had to categorise them by appointment types. So that’s been an added perk.”
Beyond the product
Beyond the product suite Shabnam says HotDoc’s customer service has been above and beyond what she would expect from a software provider.
“Before COVID, Lauren [our Senior Customer Success Manager] and some other [HotDoc] team members were in Brisbane and we were invited out to a dinner with you guys. That was really lovely. A service provider hasn't done that before.”
Shabnam says, “It was more importantly great because Lauren and Stephanie [HotDoc Senior Customer Success Manager] actually came into the practice and had a look around and saw what we were about. We explained what we were trying to achieve and passed on some ideas for things HotDoc might be able to do to help and they shared their own ideas. That was really lovely.”
Learn more about Anchor Medical at amed.com.au.
