Leveraging Your Electronic Medical Record Software for Practice Growth

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome back to this week's episode of podiatry marketing. With me, as usual, is big Jim Mac. How are doing today, Jim?

Tyson, I'm doing well. I've been to quite a few conferences over the last few weeks, and now I'm excited to, yeah, talk with you today. And I've I've got a lot of energy. There's a lot of great podiatrists out there doing some fantastic things. So, no, it's been a a fun road trip, and I'm happy to have a conversation with you today.

Yeah. I was gonna open up with welcome to podiatry marketing, the world number one podiatry marketing podcast.

There we go.

There we go. And I remember seeing this quote once, and it said 50% of quotes or 50 of things you read on the Internet are made up. Abraham Lincoln.

I've seen that. That's a good one. I I'm just trying to get the the number of American the percentage of American listeners over the percentage of Australian listeners. So maybe we could have a little contest sometime to see if we can get more you know, which which country is gonna have more listeners of podiatry marketing.

So That's funny, isn't it? The like, Australia is so small with 26,000,000 compared to over 300,000,000. And and we we're winning the downloads on this

podcast. Barely. By the time they listen to this, maybe The US is pulled ahead. We'll see.

Oh, don't know. Don't know. You're 10 times bigger. 15 times bigger, so you should have 15 times more down low.

No excuses. No excuses.

How many podiatrists in the in The States? Is it, like, 14,000? Is that about?

I think it's eight I think it's 18.

18? Yeah. Well, I'm not sure what is in podiatry, but I don't know. It's well over six. So I think when you're looking at podiatry numbers, though, you don't have 15 times more podiatrists.

But my my cohost also has a he's also at you've released, what, 500 other podcasts besides the ones we do. So I'm trying to play catch up. I'm not trying to, like, say that I'm I don't have the clout you do, but I'm definitely trying to play catch up here a little bit.

Yeah. And for the new American listeners, if you're new to the show and you're trying to beat the Australians, don't forget to check out the podiatry legends podcast while you're there.

Nice plug.

Okay, Jim. What are we talking about today?

Yeah. So, you know, while I was out of these conferences, there's some topics that came up quite, you know, frequently. And one of them was somewhat a disgruntled podiatrist with EMRs. And I thought it'd be good to talk a little bit about some ways that people can leverage their electronic medical record software to really grow their practice. I think these are expensive, you know, forms of software that a lot of podiatrists use, you know, every single day.

Probably there's been more time in them than they would like. But I think there's also certain aspects of the software that are under underutilized. And if people can be a little bit more knowledgeable about their EMRs and what the capabilities are, they could really use them to generate more reviews, generate a better patient experience. There's a few things we'll touch on today where some people hate their EMR, they don't enjoy it, but I think if you dive into certain aspects of it, some of these EMRs out there can really be a benefit to your practice.

Yeah. So you're talking electronic medical records, which is pretty much like your patient management program.

Yeah. Exactly. And and, yes, they call them EMRs or, you know, the h EHRs, like the electronic health record. So those are the two things. But yeah.

And it sometimes can be tied into different forms of practice management software. Sometimes these are more stand alone, you know, appointment and medical records documentation things, but I think there's definitely some ways that these these these types of software can be utilized to really bolster a practice.

Yeah. And I've heard them referred to also CRMs, customer relationship management programs.

Yep.

So this so it's all those terms are basically interchangeable. So anyone listening to this, you have one of them, or you should have at least one of these things. If you don't have one of these things in your practice, you need to get one.

For sure.

So where where do you wanna start?

Yeah, so we'll start kind of like with the beginning of the patient journey, right? I think when a patient calls the practice or schedules an appointment with you, how do you kind of onboard the patient and the information they have? And it's pretty common, I don't know if it's still coming in a lot of practices, but you're on the phone, people are taking a bunch of information down about the patient, and then even when they come into the clinic for the first visit, then they're given a form or something to fill out. What I've seen is there are some interesting EMRs out there that will send patient links to completing a medical history online, even before they get to the appointment. Through a of a custom questionnaire sent out by text message or email, it can really speed up and kind of save a practice some time.

I know that maybe some people have older patients and it maybe doesn't work quite as well for those folks, but even having this kind of on a web system where you have an iPad with that available, or maybe a member of your staff is helping that person onboard into the practice. But this can save a significant amount of time. I think a lot of medical staff could be better utilized for the patient experience, less data entry, if they're using kind of more efficient time saving ways to onboard patient. I think patients are going like it too, they're just going to spend less time. They can do it at their leisure, they can spend less time in the office.

They kind of walk in. Hopefully, the patient's running on time, they can get to the treatment room a lot more quickly. When you're not under the gun, kind of in that office, kind of maybe the doctor's ready to see you, you're not quite ready yet. It just, you know, it can lead to kind of a better accuracy of your medical record when you have time to, maybe all your prescriptions are at home, or you're just not under the gun so you can really think about your entire medical history to give to the podiatrist. But it just really helps the clinic also prepare for the visit, because they know why you're coming in, and they can have a better sense in their mind about what are kind of the best ways to treat you.

But obviously they're going to listen to you, they're going to go over the history and physical, and perform a physical just to make sure that they're giving you the best possible care. But I think the sooner and the easier that they can get that information about you and why you're coming to see them, the better care they can provide.

Yeah. It's interesting. You know, I've seen physios, chiropractors. I've never had to make an appointment to see a podiatrist. But usually, it's the same thing.

You make the appointment and two times, I get frustrated is when I've provided a whole pile of information over the phone. They've taken all this information, but then I turn up, they still give me a form to fill in. And I've gotta repeat the same information that I already gave them over the phone. I'm thinking, you should have half of this already, but then it'll go into more detail. However, when I've seen a a specialist, so not too long ago, I saw a neck surgeon.

It seems to be a common problem for the eye to a few neck problems. And I was I was provided something way ahead of my appointment a couple of weeks beforehand. I had all the I filled everything out completely. So when I arrived, they just said, hey, Tyson. Take a seat.

He'll be with you soon. Didn't have to didn't have to complete the and I tell you, that was so it was such a a more enjoyable experience turning up. I could just sit down and get ready for my appointment, and then wait an hour and a half to get in. But that was that's story together.

Yeah. But it gives you the opportunity for that kind of wow patient experience. Right? They they feel like they didn't just, you know, potentially waste a lot of time having to fill double fill out that paperwork. And like also I said, like, if if the patient if the the medical assistant or the front desk people don't have to be data entry people.

They can really focus on the kind of the care of the patient and just really providing them a better experience. I think that's definitely really important. The second part is, you know, if you do have a good EMR, you're gonna have automated patient reminders and automated appointment reminders. So many EMRs offer automated reminders for appointments via email or text message. This feature, you know, reduces no shows and keeps the patient kind of at top keeps the practice at top of mind for the patients.

They have a network of people that they're with as well. So by you kind of reminding the patient that you stay top of mind if someone in their network is looking for somebody, it shows the level of care and a level of there's gonna be someone in that treatment room for you to treat as opposed to forgetting about their appointment. So personally, these reminders can really enhance patient engagement and making sure that they're showing up their appointments.

Yeah. Well, even when with the podiatry legends podcast, think I've mentioned it before. When I have guests come on there and I have it all set up that they will get automatic reminders at certain times that the podcast yeah. When the podcast time's due, the amount of positive feedback I've had from guests saying, these reminders are great. Thanks.

And they actually thank me for the reminder. Or if they need to change something, they can easily respond and change from that reminder in the way that it's actually set up. It saves me a ton of time, and it also saves them a lot of time.

No. A %. There's like some of those nice automated features that, you know, it just you have to think you have to think about it less. People are busy. So if there's something that's gonna really aid you in getting to your appointment on time, and getting that great care you provide, patients are definitely gonna be thankful for that.

Yeah. But you could also probably yeah. It's also great for like recall campaigns?

No. No, for sure. I think, you know, EMRs can facilitate, you know, really targeted recall campaigns. So if it's, you know, tied into your EMR, getting patient emails, maybe you want to see someone back one week after an orthotic, just do a check, and then maybe six or twelve months recall just to make sure that they're doing well. And you know, maybe after that twelve months, it's every twelve months to check and see you know, how's your orthotic doing, how's the top covered, do you have any issues with it.

But it can be a great way that your staff doesn't actually have to spend a lot of time in it, but if the EMR has tied it to an email system, or either it's within the EMR or has kind of an integration with an email system, it can be very beneficial. Because these campaigns can be completely automated based on the patient history, the treatment schedules, and it really ensures patient engagement and continuous care. And it can be a real revenue generator for the practice by just implementing something simple as these recall campaigns.

Yeah, and they're also quite useful too that even if you have a patient that inquires about a particular problem, if you can talk to them about that problem and at least even get their email address and some information from them, you can then also provide additional information about the problem even if they haven't made an appointment yet. And this is what we I think the earlier episode we spoke about. The term is the money's in the follow-up. It's the nurturing process. Somebody has heel pain, they've inquired, they're not ready to make an appointment.

But if you can get their email address at least, you can then automate something that can that can keep providing better information for them.

No. I think the nurture like, was talking more yeah. The the recall is more for that established patients already come into, but I definitely agree with that that the you If someone does call into the practice, it's like, oh, I've been having left heel pain for a while. Should I come and see you? I don't really know or not.

Yeah, definitely setting up a sequence of maybe two or three emails to kind of follow-up with that patient if they decide not to make an appointment at that time Can provide them good information, but also build trust that you're not just trying to get them in there and just do a bunch of stuff. Maybe they just want to have a bit more information. They've been having this plantar fasciitis for three or four months, and they've tried some different things. But if you help educate them in a, you know, way and let them come to you when they feel ready, I think it can be a very successful way to to kind of develop that relationship.

Yeah. So other than just your your recalls and then, say, nurturing, you can probably also use it quite well with patient education.

Yeah. I think that's a huge opportunity. Some of these EMR systems will have a library that maybe even you can create yourself with, like how you like to treat certain things. So instead of a patient having to remember, what did that doctor tell me during the visit, you can either email, text, or print out something for them to take home with them that's very convenient, that doesn't take you, you don't have to go search for it on your Google Drive, or don't to search around, it should be pretty accessible based off of the coding that you provided your EMR. So some EMR systems have that, allow it to send those out.

And just sharing different types of foot care tips or new services you provide as well, and kind of updating about the practice through. Sometimes, like I said, these can be integrated into email systems. So if you're looking to pull patient emails to a generalized newsletter as well, that can be beneficial so you don't have to be exporting CSV files and sending them to an email newsletter provider. Sometimes these can be pulled directly from your EMR. So integrations and, like I said, patient education and making sure that the patients know what's going on, you know, this kind of stuff within an EMR can be very, very beneficial to your practice.

Yeah. And I like the idea of the patient education too that if they've had a particular say, for example, you've fitted a pair of orthotics, You've given them instructions. You may have given them written instructions, which they follow that up, put in the back pocket, and it's gone through the wash, which is what sometimes happens. And what we're doing towards the end there is you can create an audio file. You can create the written instructions again.

You can have these on your website. You can then have an email that goes out straight afterwards knowing that when this happens, send this email. So it's almost yeah. It's all automated that an email goes to that patient and says, oh, if you want to read the instructions again, follow this link. If you wanna watch listen to the instructions, click here.

If you wanna watch your video and the and your podiatrist explaining the instructions again, follow this video. So there's so many things that you can do with patient education through those programs and actually have it all automated.

Yeah. And I think there's a there's a little bit of a some people love these kind of patient portals that will sometimes provide those levels of communication and visibility for, you know, like a video, like how to take care of yourself post operatively. But I think you know having, even having a personalized post procedure video, maybe even like in a selfie with the podiatrist like holding a phone to their face explaining to you how to take care yourself afterwards. Whether you do that one time and then kind of repeat it, or you just do it personally for a patient after they leave the room or at the end of the day, those type of things are going to be really provide that patient experience. And you know, when you have that EMR to send it out with or to gather that information, obviously remaining HIPAA compliant is usually important in The US, but really finding ways to personalize that care.

And some of these tools, if you have a good EMR that require less time in it, you can spend more time with ways to really connect with people that's and establish better care.

And even patient surveys. I've got a couple of clients who have set up surveys that at a particular point, once they've been, say, example, fitted with an orthotic or had some other procedure done, a survey will go to them a few weeks later, getting their feedback. And they reckon the feedback that comes back has been so helpful in just improving a better service the next time they come in.

Yeah. We we talked about patient surveys previously, and like you said, having this accessible and be able to send that stuff through an EMR is very, very powerful. Because we're in our clinics all the time, we know what we do, we think we provide great care. But you really have to have some touch point outside of yourself or outside of your practice to really make sure that you're providing that excellent care, that excellent patient experience. Because if you can develop these practice promoters, these people that are raving fans of who you are and what you do, you know obviously I love digital marketing, I think it's a great tool.

But you have people in the real world who are advocating for you voluntarily, it's a very powerful thing. So getting that feedback, and making sure you're providing the best care possible, the best patient experience possible, is something that can be really valuable through an EMR with patient surveys.

Yeah. Would you use it for reviews and testimonials as well? Even though in Australia, we can't do testimonials, but in other countries, you can.

Yeah. Some some advanced EMRs might offer, like I said, some integrations into these review systems. So you may not even have to leave the EMR or maybe you're you're the some of the kind of the non HIPAA you know, the the or you can kind of pull information from the EMR into an email newsletter system as long as it's not getting, you know, specific medical information about But what really happens there is that you're able to send patients these requests for reviews. And it's obviously something you would ask the patient beforehand. But you have that, it's just much easier than having to set up necessarily a separate system or a separate software if possible.

So if do have that in your EMR, I highly recommend it. Because like I said, what I find is a lot of times that, you know, people do their notes, they do their charting in the EMR, but they kind of turn a blind eye to what other opportunities are within that EMR. And people are paying such high amounts of money for these things, they need to make sure that they're funding the best ways to be efficient with it and cost effective, If it has the ability to have patient education or the ability onboard a patient in an efficient manner, you should really take advantage of what your EMR has to do. I know that no EMR is perfect, and everyone has gripes pretty much about everyone. But at the same time, if you get to know the capabilities of what you, maybe you don't like your EMR, and maybe you want to learn what you can do for the next one, finding out what ways will make your practice more efficient with some of the things we mentioned here above.

But as they're growing and EMRs are changing, you're seeing things like AI and other things get implemented into it, which will really help generate faster, more accurate patient notes in the future.

Yeah. Just wanna touch on the reviews there for a section too. Sure. I honestly believe the more reviews you give, the more reviews you get. So if you're enjoying this podcast, think about giving us a review on whatever podcast platform you're listening to.

Thought I'd give us a plug there, Jim. But it's true. I I think if you give, you get. So I just thought I'd just throw that in there. What about integrating what about integrating with, social media and other other online sort of review management?

Yeah. With the review management, I think definitely it it can be one of those things where you pull information from it and and into your potential review system, like utilizing kind of secondary software. I haven't seen any EMRs themselves that, like, do much from a social media perspective. I've seen sometimes you can pull information into a, like, a a review gathering site. And if someone is given a five star, you know, you can kind of make a small image, or you can find make something shareable for social media.

But maybe in the future, there'll be more integrations. I think there's a little especially in The US, it's a little tricky with, you know, how like, how much access to give some of these social media platforms, especially tying them into a HIPAA compliant EMR.

Yeah.

But I think there's definitely things you can utilize from other kind of secondary softwares that integrate with an EMR, but I haven't seen a lot of social media integration with into the EMR quite yet.

No. Most ones I've seen, it'll integrate with newsletters really well. And then within the newsletter, you can have that integrated with your social media. So it's sort of it all

Right.

Sort of ties in. But pretty much like the overall feel I get from what you're talking about here is don't look at your EMR purely as just your patient records. Use it as a marketing tool because if it's got the capabilities to do it, then you should be using it because you're paying for

it. No. For sure. And if it's if you have one of those I know that there's different types of EMRs. Some people are it's kind of an all in one.

So if you have access to all those features, why not use them to grow your practice? I know there's other types of EMRs that are more $50 a month for this and a hundred dollars a month for this extra thing. Yeah. And and at that point, maybe it's not it's not worth it if you have that type of EMR. If you're you know, if they're trying to, like, you know, kinda nickel and dime me for every little feature, maybe it's not worth it.

But by leveraging these EMR features, podiatrists can not only improve operational efficiency, but really affect they can kind of effectively market their practice in a cost effective manner if they're already paying for these things. So if you want to retain patients, you want to attract new ones, definitely try to max out the capabilities of your EMR, either with yourself or with your staff. Because I said, if your staff can become more about a patient experience provider, and helping you along that, as opposed to a data entry person, that's what it's really all about.

Yeah. And I think after you listen to this podcast episode, take down some notes and then talk to whoever you get your email from your practice management software and ask them, can I do this? Because sometimes you'll have a capability. You don't realize which buttons or something you've got to tick in the background to actually make it work. And usually, all these programs will also have some form of training involved.

They'll have a website you can go to, and you can learn how to actually apply these things. But I think it's first, work out what you want it to do, talk to your provider, can I can I do it? And if it can't, there may be something they haven't thought about that they may introduce. So the people that we used to use were like that. They were always wanting feedback, and eventually, you gave enough feedback, those features would stop being added.

They had the capabilities of doing it.

No. That's a great point. You know, just asking for what you wanna have with your EMR will sometimes, if they haven't opened, if their ears are open and they're receptive to it, definitely. I think there's also another avenue you can go down is that generally all these EMRs will have like a doctor who is kind of the expert or the mentor and kind of knows all the ins and outs, has basically kind of explored every aspect, every nook and cranny of this EMR. So generally, they'll they'll be able to consult with you probably for free because they're probably getting a discount.

Their EMR is being discounted

Yeah.

By by being a consultant for them. So but if so if you have an interest in EMRs and you want to make them better, one way to lower your cost potentially is to become an expert on that EMR and consult with the company that provides your EMR. So just some extra ideas there to to wrap up the show.

Yeah. And I've also heard people that have gone into Facebook and have searched for that particular EMR and seen if there's a users group that actually uses that particular software. And they've joined that, and they've learned a lot going through that down that avenue as well.

Absolutely.

Okay, Big Jim. This has been an interesting topic. I hope everyone takes something away from this and actually applies it. So I look forward to talking to next week.

Sounds great, Tyson.

Okay. See you. Bye.

Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDaniel. Subscribe and learn more at PodiatryMarketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.