CUSTOMER STORY
From Ghosted Payments to Guaranteed Collections
HotDoc's Impact at Sydney Doctors
Sydney Doctors is a private billing practice located in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, with both medical and dental services operating under separate entities. The practice employs seven GPs, often with four to five on during busy weekdays. The front desk team consists of three receptionists per shift, who handle both GP and dental bookings. The team operates in a fast-paced environment supporting a high volume of patients.
The patient demographic is varied. Most are young to middle-aged business professionals, however the practice also serves a large number of international travellers, along with long-term older patients who live in city apartments.
Practice Manager Kelly oversees both the medical and dental arms of the practice. She shared how HotDoc has transformed Sydney Doctor’s daily operations, reduced administrative burden, and provided a better experience for both patients and staff.
Getting started with HotDoc
Sydney Doctors manages around 1,000 appointments each month and uses HotDoc Payments to handle more than 14,000 payment requests over 12 months. They began using HotDoc in 2016 and were already using Bookings, Payments, Recalls, Reminders, Inform, Telehealth, and other HotDoc features when Kelly saw an email about Pre-authorisation. Before adopting HotDoc Payments, the practice faced:
- Frequent walkouts from unpaid consults
- Outstanding debt
- Admin time chasing payments via phone
What caught her attention about Pre-authorisation, was the potential to deal with a persistent challenge. Patients attending appointments without enough money in their account too often disappeared when the practice followed up.
“What made me click yes to adopt pre-authorisation is because a lot of people would still come [for their appointment] but have no money on their card. So when we go to collect it'd be failed payment after failed payment. And usually, if someone doesn't have money in their account, they know they don't have money in their account. So they don't answer their calls after that.”
While the practice is private-billing with clear payment polities, staff were having to handle conversations with patients about being unable to book their next appointment until they settled their accounts. And while they’re trained to do so in a professional and friendly-manner, the practice was open to a solution to avoid these uncomfortable conversations.
HotDoc Payments, including Pre-authorisation, offered the consistency and protection the practice needed to secure payment prior to the appointment and eliminate the administrative burden on staff.
Creating a smoother, faster checkout experience that patients love
The practice has used the full suite of HotDoc Payments features, including the Sidebar to complete more than 8,500 patient payments over the last 12 months.
“We love it [the Sidebar]. It saves us so much time. It's made checking out very smooth at the front, and it’s reduced interactions (over money) with the patients.”
To be clear, the goal is not to substitute personal connection for efficiency. Sydney Doctors prides itself on creating great patient relationships — but a smoother, faster check out experience has meant less unnecessary admin so staff can focus on more meaningful interactions.
“We have a very good relationship with our very regular patients. My team is known for being extremely friendly and bubbly and all the rest of it. But because we're city based and our patient base is mostly coming in during a break or skipping out of work for a half hour to see the doctor..they need to get in and out quickly.”
Most Sydney Doctors patients, especially younger professionals are very comfortable with storing cards and using digital payments, so most patients have their card stored via HotDoc. But for those older patients or those uncomfortable with storing cards, Kelly accommodates them individually. She emphasised that patient education to initially get people comfortable with digital payments was key to their success, but prioritising the patient relationship and their individual needs is still her team’s absolute priority.
Efficiency and outcomes
HotDoc Payments and Pre-authorisation now form a core part of Sydney Doctors’ operations, keeping the practice running smoothly even on its busiest days. While Pre-authorisation is a temporary hold on funds for patient appointments, patients find payment seamless after their appointment because they feel like payment is “already done”. Failed payments have effectively disappeared and debt is at an all time low.
“Pre-authorisation has stopped that. I can't even tell you the last time that I noticed a failed payment.”
Revenue Protection
- Funds assured prior to appointment
- Reduced walkouts and uncollected consult fees with a 57% payment collection rate with HotDoc.
- Consistent payment capture even during high-volume periods with a 108% increase in paid invoices since using HotDoc payments.
Debt reduction
- Failed payments have become extremely rare
- Outstanding accounts dropped from “huge” to “very minimal”
- No more calling patients who avoid payment after a failed transaction
- Fewer accounts needing to be written off or bulk-billed
- Clear boundaries for patients who must settle accounts before rebooking
Patient Experience
- Significantly positive patient feedback on ease of payment
- Patients regularly comment that the process is “so easy”
- Many patients feel like they’ve “already paid” because of pre-authorisation
- Faster exit from the clinic, which suits workers attending on short breaks
“So, patient feedback for us has been very, very positive. Patients always comment, and they always say, oh, my gosh, that's so easy.”
Advice for other Practice Managers
There’s so much to celebrate in the way Sydney Doctors continue to use HotDoc. While many practices adopted Payments features slowly, Sydney Doctors jumped in confidently, enabled it broadly across appointment types, and adjusted workflows so it became second nature.
Kelly has built a reception team that is incredibly efficient with payments, and is still known for being “extremely friendly and bubbly” proving firm but fair payment boundaries and an exceptional patient experience aren’t mutually exclusive.
When asked about her experience with HotDoc more generally, Kelly said she’s always had positive interactions with the support team and:
“HotDoc certainly makes my life easier. I've not found anything negative about HotDoc since it was introduced.”
Thank you Kelly! If you’d like to learn more about HotDoc’s complete payments solution, click here.
Related customer stories
HotDoc is trusted by tens of thousands of GPs, specialists and dentists. Here’s what a few of them say.
How Whole Medicine Increased Bookings for Preventative Health Checks During COVID-19