CUSTOMER STORY

Improving Payment Efficiency and Patient Engagement

HotDoc's Impact at Health Hub Morayfield

Health Hub Doctors Morayfield, based in Queensland, is a large, high-volume medical centre operating under a mixed and private billing model. The practice employs approximately 50 healthcare professionals, operating across general practice, specialist, and allied health services. The practice also partners with the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) Clinical Trials team, collaborating on large-scale research and recruitment initiatives.

The management team is led by Kellie, the Area Manager and Practice Manager, supported by Jayley and Michaela, who share 2IC responsibilities.

Getting started with HotDoc

Health Hub Morayfield began using HotDoc in 2022 and quickly adopted a wide range of features including Bookings, Results, Reminders, Custom Reminders, Forms, Inform, Broadcasts, Payments, and Telehealth.

In the last 12 months, HealthHub Morayfield attracted 6,035 new patients via the HotDoc app and website.

Since introducing HotDoc Payments and Broadcast SMS, the practice has seen huge improvements in efficiency and patient engagement. Payments has helped free up staff time, while Broadcasts made it easy to reach patients with timely updates and health campaigns.

“Using HotDoc Payments meant we could redeploy the equivalent of three full-time receptionists from chasing payments to managing phone calls. That’s a big deal when you’re fielding around a thousand calls every day.”

Jayley, 2IC

Boosting engagement with Broadcast SMS

Before HotDoc, the practice relied on patient communication via marketing newsletters sent through a different third-party platform. Open and engagement rates were inconsistent and the team struggled to reach patients effectively.

With HotDoc Broadcasts, communication became targeted, measurable, and easy to manage. The team now uses Broadcast SMS primarily to promote flu shots and other vaccinations, and to support clinical trial recruitment on behalf of UniSC.

"For our flu vaccine campaigns, we’d send one big Broadcast, then another halfway through the season and compare how many were booked before versus how many booked after the text went out. There was always a bit of an uptake depending on the age group — usually the 20- to 50-year-olds responded best.”

Jayley, 2IC

For clinical trial Broadcasts, each campaign typically reaches between 5,000 and 10,000 people. The 3% engagement rate with the clinical trial links in the SMS Broadcasts met everyone’s expectations, and the team has never received complaints about phishing or suspicious links. This demonstrates that Broadcasts are not only effective but also accepted by patients when it comes from a practice they trust.

Broadcast SMS benefits

Ideal for flu and COVID-19 vaccination promotions
Drove engagement for UniSC clinical trial recruitment
Occasionally used for service updates and doctor announcements
Scales easily to 10,000+ recipients per campaign
Built-in ACMA compliance template (practice name, phone, opt-out link)

To learn more about HotDoc’s Broadcasts, click here.

Streamlining payments and reducing debt

The practice manages around 10,000 appointments each month and uses HotDoc Payments to handle more than 135,430 payment requests over 12 months.

With only 10% of appointments bulk-billed, having a reliable digital payment process is crucial for keeping revenue sustainable and the patient experience smooth. In the last 12 months, Health Hub Morayfield has completed 42,184 patient payments, where they’ve processed millions in payments revenue.

Before adopting HotDoc Payments, the practice faced:

When the team implemented HotDoc Payments, they simultaneously activated the HotDoc Sidebar and HotDoc’s Deb Collection feature which has helped them prevent walk-outs and speed up the processing of payments:

"We had a heap of debt before implementing it, but HotDoc Payments definitely helped. Before, we’d have literal lines of patients out the door. Some would get frustrated and just leave without paying. Others assumed we were still bulk-billing and didn’t realise payment was required. Once we started using HotDoc Payments, it got a lot easier.”

Jayley, 2IC

Efficiency and outcomes

In other words, what’s good for patients is also good for business. In summary the benefits of using Payments were:

Operational efficiency

Improved patient flow

Debt reduction

To learn more about HotDoc’s complete payments solution, click here.

Advice for other Practice Managers

Health Hub Morayfield has shown impressive initiative and effectiveness in their use of HotDoc. This case study focused on two areas where Health Hub Morayfield has seen the most impact with HotDoc, successfully demonstrating how it’s possible to balance the patient experience with revenue protection.

When asked what she’d tell another Practice Manager thinking about HotDoc Payments or Broadcasts, Jayley didn’t hesitate to state:

“It’s a huge time-saver and a money-saver. You can redeploy your team where they’re actually needed. Especially if your front desk isn’t at the exit or you’ve got multiple entry points, it’s so much easier having HotDoc handle payments. Broadcasts are also perfect for health promotion too; great for quality improvement incentives, flu campaigns, and things like that.”

Jayley, 2IC