What AI Can Do For Your Podiatry Practice Right Now

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald. Welcome back to podiatry marketing. I'm your host, Jim McDannald. I am not joined by Tyson Franklin, this week, you've got me on a solo show.

I'm sure Tyson's off and about either in The US or recovering from a big trip to The States, so he'll be back next week. But, anyways, we'll jump into it. Today, we're gonna jump into a really fun and exciting topic, and that is what can AI do for your podiatry practice right now? You know, these days, the amount of hype around ChatGPT, maybe it's Google's Gemini, it's just kind of everywhere. And that's great.

You know, obviously, they can help you write better. It can help you do different things that, you know, different digital tools currently can't currently do. But, you know, what are those things that it can actually provide you in your practice? You know, what are ways that you can implement it right now to be more efficient in your practice? So that's what we're going to jump in today.

I'll kind of give you the top five of ways you can utilize AI in your podiatry practice right now. So first and foremost is it can enhance your communication with other health care providers. You know, these CHED GPT or these LLM based note writing apps. You know, for example, a podiatrist treating a diabetic patient with a full ulcer can leverage AI to draft detailed referral notes quickly and accurately. So these AI agents, maybe it's on your phone or maybe you have a browser that allows you to record the conversation, It's going to use structured data from the electronic health record that you create by this encounter, and it's going to generate a clear and compliance friendly referral letter summarizing the patient's treatment, the follow-up plan, and recommendations, right?

So instead of having to spend all the time after you get out of the treatment room to not only write up the note, but then also to write up a referral thank you or an update or referral letter to one of your physicians that's sending patients your way. This stuff can be done in a much more automated but personalized fashion. I think sometimes people get you know, we've all had automated phone calls or automated messages left on our voicemail, and it's super annoying. But the difference with AI generated notes is that it's gonna pull this relevant information from the chart note and make it very you you can kind of craft it however you want, but it's gonna make it a very relevant and helpful note for that referring physician so there's good communication about what's happening with their patient and what the plans are moving forward. The streamlined communication minimizes, like I talked about, having to write manual notes or doing something that's kind of obviously templated and not very customized, you know, while kind of maintain the compliance within your health care regulations.

So that's super important. Right? Additionally, AI can integrate kind of cost transparency required by different aspects of things. At the very beginning, whether it be the kind of accuracy and the amount of information you can put into a note, but also, like I talked about, sending these referral letters to a physician that refer the patient can be huge. It's going to help them understand what's happening with their patient.

It's going to keep those lines of communication open and hopefully generate additional referrals in the future because the doctors are happy about the care you're providing to their patient, but also the way you're communicating in a very personalized, detailed manner that if you were just to step out of your office or step out of the treatment room, try to do the EMR, and then also do the note, it's going to take a really long time. But these different AI models can make it very, very easy to not only do your EMR and your health note, but also these referral letters back to those physicians. So that's number one. Number two. Well, before we jump into number two, you know, like I talked about, it's gonna boost the profitability of your practice, right?

So by reducing the time spent on clinical documentation, you you can focus on seeing more patients and spend less time on administrative tasks. Ultimately, you know, you're gonna save time, increasing your revenue potential. It's also gonna help build stronger referral relationships like I talked about, you know. You're gonna get more of these referrals and more cases sent to you because the referring physicians are happy with the care you're providing and the way you're communicating it. There's different companies out there that do this for you.

Obviously, one is the EMR called Populate. It's got kind of that AI recording agent in the background, something called Heidi, which is pretty popular these days, and also Nabla. These offer AI controlled excuse me, AI powered clinical note generation. It's going to reduce that amount of manual documentation in helping improve the care coordination between you and that referring physician. So there's also Amazon Web Services.

There's something called HealthScribe that might also be something to be integrated into your EMR. More and more EMRs are having this be a part of the EMR, so definitely talk to your provider to see if that's something that they offer. And if not, what is the roadmap to having either something built into the product itself or having some additional software that integrates IntreeMR to make these health care notes the treatment notes and also the referral letters super easy for your staff. Next, we're talking about kind of streamlining patient communications, right? So, you know, for example, after an ingrown toenail procedure, AI powered messaging systems can automatically send follow-up texts or email to patients about, you know, what is the kind of the proper post procedural treatment for that, right?

Obviously, you can give them handouts as well. That's totally okay. But sometimes daily reminders about, okay, today it's time to change the dressing, or you can't get it wet until this day, so continue to keep it dry. Sometimes either through a text message or an email is going to be much more relevant for that patient. You know, maybe it's something you send out at seven a.

M. Every day to them so they know what to expect. If it's still a little bit painful, maybe they're taking a little bit of ibuprofen or aspirin. If they have bleeding issues, probably not aspirin. But just letting them know about what their options are in a way that is more customized utilizing kind of AI assistant messaging.

It can be a really, really helpful way based on, you know, can kind of tailor these communications based on the patient's history, the procedure provided. It's going to ensure that they understand the type of treatment that you are providing. This type of personal communication reduces confusion. Obviously, that piece of paper might have given it at a pre op or after the procedure. They may lose that in the car.

They may not have it. Instead of them having to call back in the clinic and type your staff, if you let them know that you're going be providing them daily updates as far as what they should be doing, either through the text message or through email, it can be a great way to allow them to kind of provide it helps you kind of provide better care for them even though they may not be in the clinic. So that's something to consider. Also, it's one of the things where there's different ways of kind of reminding you about payments. Obviously, we have those patients sometimes that, for whatever reason, they left their wallet or, you know, they couldn't do the copay.

Obviously, there's different payment policies you have in place, and those are up to you. But, you know, letting a patient beforehand know that they have a copay coming into the practice through an automated AI system can be a way to make sure that they're prepared and that you're actually receiving payment in a timely manner to make sure that you're minimizing that kind of miscommunication or upset patient that shows up and they didn't know they had a copay, and then you get a one star review. It can be not a great experience not only for the clinic, but also for the patient. So if there's ways to improve communication through AI automation, you know, that's definitely something to consider implementing into your practice. It's also going to cut down on, you know, staff time chasing down payments, right?

It's going to allow for smoother and more profitable practice. So, you know, maybe it's, like I said, either a pre payment or a post payment. This can be done in an automated fashion and can be very, very helpful. There's a company called Cedar that currently collaborates with Google Cloud and has some AI powered messaging solutions that really helps simplify patient communication regarding billing and financial responsibilities. There's other ones out there, you know, like Weave and other things that can be helpful.

I don't know how much they've implemented AI as far as, you know, checking with patients' insurance to make sure that they have that copay ready to go, but this is something to be aware of that is possible now, which is whether it integrates into your EMR and scheduling system currently. Number three would be a great way to AI can be a great way to automate administrative tasks, especially when it comes to billing and coding. For example, you know, you're a podiatrist treating a patient for heel pain, you're using custom orthotics, maybe some shockwave therapy. You can use AI software to automatically categorize and apply the correct billing codes, right? If you these type of diagnosis, you know it's going be these types of codes.

The AI can extract that data directly from the EHR and estimate the patient's liability, you know, sometimes, you know, after the treatment, but also sometimes, before they start the treatment. So it provides options. It might also provide options as far as different payment arrangements. Maybe you like to charge up front for your Shockwave, or maybe it's on a case by case or a treatment by treatment basis. Having that kind of built into an automated system through AI will help reduce the likelihood of unpaid bills.

Like I talked about, it gives certainty for the patient so they know what they're getting themselves into. They don't feel surprised or shocked by the way that things are going. Also can provide some different flexibility as far as payment plans go. You know, if there's outstanding balances, AI powered accounts receivable, systems can automatically flag them, initiate follow-up actions, whether it be an email or text message. Hey.

Just wanna let you know your bill is due in seven days. Obviously, it can be a great way to make sure that you're continuing to collect off of the great care that you provide to patients. So one thing to consider there. You know, this is gonna boost your profitability. You're gonna be by automating the billing and coding eliminates, you know, costly errors, it's gonna speed up claim submissions and hopefully reduce the administrative burden.

Hopefully, you know, instead of having to have staff on the phone trying to chase people down or utilizing a collections agency, AI can be kind of a way for you to get more kind of speed up the payment of those claims to make sure that you're not kind of burning more man hours. Right? People can be utilizing tasks within the clinic that are helping improve the patient experience instead of having to track down all those payments and all those claim submissions. AI also can resolve like I talked about, this results in, you know, more efficient cash flow and less reliance on these kind of third party billing services. So it's a great way to kind of drive profitability in your practice.

There's a company called akaSA. They offer AI powered coding revenue cycle or, excuse me, revenue cycle solutions that automatically categorize billing and codes and reduce administrative work. There's some different EMRs. I know Populate is doing a great job, for example, to really kinda help automate some of these billing and coding workflows to make it more smooth for you and your staff. So that's definitely something to consider moving forward.

Like I talked about previously, Amazon Web excuse me, Amazon Web Services or AWS have something called Healthscribe that also includes billing and coding functionality. You know, whether that applies to your EMR, it's something that, you know, you need to find some software that plugs in there. There's there's more of it billing built built out every single day. The next thing that AI can really help you today with your practice is streamlining patient scheduling. AI driven appointment management is a huge thing.

You know, AI can automate your patient scheduling. It can optimize patient slots. Can minimize your no shows by sending, you know, timely reminders and managing cancellations in real time. So if you're going to see a patient on a Friday morning and then they cancel, you know, maybe AI knows that you have a waitlist. It can pull a name and a phone number from that waitlist so you're able to see a patient in that slot.

You're not having to spend time with your scheduler or someone else having to do that. It's a way to really bring more patients in the door in a really cost effective, time efficient manner. So AI can also predict patient needs based on historical data, Right? So maybe you, you know, every new patient is, you know, forty minutes or something or thirty minutes. But maybe you know that you can do with a heel pain patient is only twenty five.

So based off a, you know, a specific diagnosis when calls in for heel you know, makes an appointment for heel pain, the AI scheduler in your EMR knows that it only usually takes you about twenty five minutes. It can adjust that schedule, so maybe by the end of day, you can schedule another patient or two or maybe have more time to do something you want to in the clinic that's not related to patient care. But, you know, there's ways that you can really utilize AI to kind of suggest kind of you know, it can also suggest optimal appointment durations like I talked about for different types, ensuring that your time is being used efficiently because that's super, super important. You know, maybe you can use AI to automatically, like I talked about, kind of fill in those last second cancellations. You're going to notify patients on the waiting list.

It's gonna send patient reminders and allow patients to reschedule through an online system instead of having to tie up someone on the phone. You know, maybe their kid is sick. But by sending out these patient reminders, it's gonna make your schedule more efficient to make sure that people aren't no showing you. It's gonna like I talked about as well, it's gonna reduce the administrative workload on your staff so they can provide a great patient experience, and you're gonna keep your clinic's schedule full. By optimizing and scheduling, reducing no shows, and adding kinda filling in those gaps to the patient on the waiting list, you know, AI driven appointment management really increases the revenue and ensures your schedule remains fully booked.

This automation reduces administrative costs and allows your staff to focus on more critical tasks like the patient experience and really contribute to contributes overall to the profitability of your clinic. So it's really important that you have efficient scheduling systems, and the more that AI is worked into these systems, the more efficient you and your staff can be. I know the Epic, NextGen Healthcare, eClinicalWorks are all kind of experimenting with different options when it comes to patient recall or automatic rebooking. So, you know, look at your EHR platform and see if they offer AI powered appointment scheduling features. Like I talked about, it's really gonna help reduce no shows and the administrative workload on your staff.

Last but not least is personalizing health care. I think sometimes, you know, when people think of AI or automation, they go, That's not going to be very personal, right? Like, it's going to be robots and those kind of things. But there's a lot of kind of grunt work or busy work we do. There's things that we see or things we type in in a repeated manner, and by having an AI agent or some AI assisted software, you know, to help with patient care.

And, obviously, whenever you use AI, we're gonna double check and triple check to make sure that the output is what we put into it because, obviously, these systems are new, and we need to make sure the quality is high. But, for example, you're treating a patient with chronic Achilles tendonitis, you can use AI to analyze not only the patient's complete medical history, their lifestyle, their insurance coverage, but also, you know, what are the ways that within the medical literature are people getting the best treatment for these types of diagnoses. It really helps you recommend a tailored treatment plan that's much more personalized than it had been previously. The AI can help you take into account the patient's demographics, their past responses, different types of treatment. Maybe you did a steroid injection or you did some type of physical therapy that wasn't really beneficial for the Achilles tinnitus.

It can help you determine some other ideal opportunities for getting that patient to feel better when you have that information at your fingertips. You know, it can authorize that custom plan that maybe includes, you know, physical therapy or regenerative medicine. Maybe the patient needs orthotics. Can also provide transparent cost estimates for patients, right? You know, they can get a general sense of what does it cost to treat plantar fasciitis during a normal course.

So people have some there's a little bit more financial transparency. I think, you know, as people are getting somewhat fed up with insurances and high deductibles, you know, things like direct care and fee for service care is something that patients are getting more and more interested in. And if you can be transparent about your pricing, it really gives an opportunity to kind of be straightforward with patients about this is the average cost for someone that you treat for plantar fasciitis. You know, at this point in time, it's, you know, something that can be a benefit to your patients, but it's something that in the future maybe payers will be asking you to do as well. So something that, you know, you can kind of take the bull by the horns and kind of get ahead of the curve by kind of providing this financial transparency for patients that they'll be really, really happy that you do so.

You know, this is going to boost not only patient satisfaction but also potential profitability of your practice. So, know, personalized treatment recommendations, improve patient outcomes. You know, the more data you can pull from, the more you know kind of, in the scientific literature, what's working and what's not working. You can increase the satisfaction of patients that come to your practice. And when you have happy patients, they're more than happy to talk to other people about it.

So it can be a real practice booster in a way as they kind of spread that positive good word-of-mouth about your clinic. So it's gonna increase the likelihood of people to follow-up. And also, like I talked about, it can lead to additional referrals. By integrating cost estimates with your treatment plans, AI reduces kind of payment friction and improves cash flow by ensuring patients are informed and prepared to pay. You know, someone knows that, you know, your plantar fasciitis course of treatment is somewhere around $1,200 or I don't know what it's going be.

That's just an estimate. But they'd be much more likely to understand, you know, what that relationship is and what they should expect. It's not always going to be that way. Obviously, costs can change and no two patients are exactly the same, but some estimation and transparency can be helpful for patients. Furthermore, automated compliance with, you know, cost transparency regulations, you wanna make sure that, you know, you're mitigating the risk of no legal complications.

You wanna make sure you're practicing the standard of care. And by having an AI agent that's helping you stay on top of the latest and greatest as far as what's really helping patients improve can be a great supplement to the great care that you provide. So there's companies like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud that are providing, you know, kind of analyze patient data and help generate personalized treatment recommendations. Like I talked about, there's kind of new AI companies that incorporate some of the scientific literature all the time. And as time goes on, there'll be more and more of this implemented into the way you provide care.

I'll close by saying, you know, by applying these AI powered solutions, podiatry practices can efficiently address rising administrative costs and streamline operations and improve patient satisfaction, all all the while maintaining a profitable private practice without needing to sell to larger corporate entities. You know, you can maintain your independence and practice the way you want to with the help of AI. It'll make you more efficient. Your staff, maybe either your reduced staff or they can really focus more on things like the patient experience so people are satisfied when they come to your clinic and really willing to spread that word-of-mouth that's gonna lead to referrals. These technologies, you know, these AI technologies allow patients sorry, allow podiatrists to remain competitive in an evolving healthcare market.

You're gonna deliver better patient care, and you're gonna run a more efficient and profitable clinic. So that's kind of my rundown as far as the top five ways that AI can really benefit your practice now. If you're using AI in your practice and you have ideas that you think would be beneficial for us to share to our audience, don't hesitate to let us know. You can email me, jimpodiatrygrowth dot com, or you can go to our website, podiatry.marketing. We have a form you can fill out there and send us some information about what you think is working when it comes to AI in your practice, and we'd really look forward to hearing from you.

So until we talk again, Tyson will be back next week. Enjoy the rest of your week, and we'll see you then. Bye now. Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDaniel. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing.

That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.