Transcript
Marla: Welcome everyone, and thank you so much for joining today. I know everybody has very busy days and are treating or running practices, so we really appreciate your time and joining with us here to talk about our webinar. Practice model of the future, empowering, exceptional patient care. And I'm Marla Raneri. I will be your moderator for today's conversation.
And I really just wanna just think about the healthcare landscape in general right now. There's a lot of changes happening and patients have a lot more choices than ever before with the digital first companies that are popping up like Hinge, Sword, Amada, along with AI driven solutions like ChatGPT it's a lot easier for patients to just get care from the convenience of their home, from their computer and from an app.
And we all know that's not necessarily the best way. And overall, this in-clinic, brick and mortar is a fantastic with hands-on care, but people do the quick, easy fix. And the challenge for us in brick and mortars is to decide and figure out why should a patient drive across town, take time out of work or rearrange their day just to see us in person.
As we know, hands-on care is invaluable, but what else are we doing to make sure patients have an exceptional experience that they can get, that they can't get from a digital first company? And that's really what we're here to talk about today. We have a great panel of experts that I will announce in just a second.
But we wanna talk about what is that exceptional experience that we can provide. How does it feel? Spa-like, engaging, outcome driven and deeply personal, the kind of experience that patients can't get from an app and that they will drive across town 30 minutes away three times a week to be able to come to the clinic to get.
And we're gonna talk about how to reimagine the in-person experience, how to build a culture of care and excellence, how to use smart tools and systems to support clinicians and to keep patients engaged. And how to measure and sustain impact of all those different pieces over time. So we know what we're doing is working.
Our goal is for all of you to leave with practical, tangible strategies you can bring back to your practice right away. So before we start and get into announcing our panel, wanna get some housekeeping done first? We really do want this to be interactive. We wanna hear from you, so there is a chat that you guys can talk to each other on.
You can engage with us as well. But if you have a question, we want you and encourage you to put it in the q and a button, which is at the bottom of your screen, and that way we can track it, we can answer the question. And if we don't get to it during today's session, we will absolutely answer it after and email you to make sure that we do get your question answered.
We'll also run a couple of polls along the way and please wanna hear from you as well on that. So let's start with our first poll question and you're gonna see it pop up in your window and it's what best describes your current practice model strategy? Are you in the traditional volume model but exploring ways to evolve?
Are you implementing some modern approaches, hybrid care, retail or tech enabled models? Are you actively redesigning your patient experience and operations or are you not sure where to start, but eager to learn? Alright, I'm gonna fill it out right now. Two. Perfect. Great. And I see Jerry Durham is joining us today.
I love this as well. So thank you guys. Again, please feel free to put all of your information in the chat and chat with each other too all in addition to that, we've got our panelists. So we've got Eric Fernandez. Eric, thank you for joining us.
Eric: Pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Marla: And Eric is the senior director of Hyper ICE's Rehab Division where he's helped thousands of clinics integrate recovery tools, wellness programs, and cash-based services into patient care.
His focus is on combining clinical science with business strategy to improve outcomes and grow practice. And we also have Ben Carlson. Thank you, Ben, for joining us today.
Ben: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Marla: And Ben is the CEO of Carlson ProCare, a second generation practice in Connecticut that's been serving patients for over 40 years and they've grown to over five clinics.
He's modernized operations, built a strong clinic culture and is proving that private practice can thrive by prioritizing personalization and excellence over high volume care. And finally, we have Michael Silva with us.
Michael: Hey Marla. Thanks for having me.
Marla: And Michael is a founder and grew foundation performance into one of New England's leading PT practices before successfully exiting.
And today he coaches other practice owners on how to scale and thrive without sacrificing purpose or personal life with a focus on relationships, culture, and exceptional patient experience. Thank you all for joining us. Can't wait to hear all of your insights.
Eric: Can be fun. Yeah.
Marla: Yes. And let's start let's start with the patient experience.
I think that's the best place to really talk about how expectations have shifted and what people want in terms of coming from between digital and onsite. So Michael would love to start with you. How have patient experiences changed in recent years?
Michael: That's a loaded question right off the bat.
I love it, Marla. Thank you. Right now there's two terms that I use and how it's changed. So we look at patients now as I call 'em, the frugal googles or the chat rats, right? Everyone has access to the world at their fingertips. So many of them are reaching out and finding information on the internet before they even make it to an in-person.
And I guarantee most people even bypassing the in-person care because they're getting what they think is the information they need off of chat GBT or Google or YouTube or whatever it is. So just having that amount of information is wonderful for most of us. But it can be a challenge 'cause that's a, we're not just competing with the other clinic down the road.
We're not just competing with those virtual PT businesses. We're actually competing with. The internet, there's so much out there. And we know everything on the internet is true and a hundred percent valuable. So we have nothing to worry. Just Google something and you'll be fine guys.
Just take that information as as carved in stone. So I think that's the biggest thing. So there's that, there's all that information. So I think it's great 'cause patients are coming in informed, and, you can't be as patient. You can't just fumble your way through an assessment or fumble your way through a plan of care or anything because they're gonna get the information that is can dive deeper and even into the textbooks that we use when we're going through a PT school.
So just knowing that they have access to that information and knowing that. Life is expensive right now and healthcare is expensive. So if they can get the information and learn a few exercises on YouTube for free, why are they gonna pay $190 for an evaluation and then come in for follow-up visits for X amount of visits, depending on the plan of care.
So that goes back to why are they gonna do it? 'cause we're gonna make the patient experience unbelievable, which I'm sure we'll get into the specifics of that. But I think that's the change and another change that I've seen. Me personally and just in general. I think these people that say, and we were one of them, like one-on-one 60 minute treatments this is what we do, this is great and we're getting all this one-on-one care.
But guess what, some people don't have time for 60 minute treatments. Some people want to come in, I'll do my stretches of home, I'll do this, like due to me what I can't do at home. So I think there's a demand of, okay, bring me the value that I can get online by myself or do to myself. So that's just probably the major shifts I've seen.
I wouldn't say just over the past, the AI is really over the past two years, but just over the past 10 years, that's the biggest shift that I've seen.
Marla: You really pointed out such an important part of that is that you have to be patient centric to that patient and some love that one hour, one and a half hour, but some don't have that time and it's the experience customized and tailored to them that's really gonna bring them to you versus the internet.
Love that. And Ben would love to ask you a little bit about that too, just what drives loyalty and satisfaction in 2025 and 20 and beyond? It's same kind of question, but what do you think about these patients these days and what drives loyalty to them coming into the clinic?
Ben: Yeah, it's, you're creating experience and that's what we're talking about here is it's not just about quality of care. And I think most people that get into this field, they're into it because they're passionate about quality of care, right? So everybody's providing quality of care, but then you have to think about all of the other details of the experience.
Every piece of when the patient is getting connected to us, whether that's the starting online, whether it's going, the phone call, whether it's when they open the doors, whether they do the check-in. Every part of the experience needs to be curated and designed. I think environment is really critical.
And I think also today you have, as Michael talked about, yes you can go to chat pt, you can go on the internet, but people are also, I think, are wanting connection and that's something that's really important. Like a lot of the best PTs that I see or that that our company or that I speak to, they aren't always the most technical.
They're people that are really good at coaching. And that's something that you not, you're not gonna get at home. And especially if you're injured, especially, there's the psychology of that where, you can get down, you can get depressed, you're at your own house. And you're just like, being in an uplifting, positive environment, I think is a super underrated part to rehab that isn't probably talked about it or even measured enough.
So that's what's important to us and how, how just to curate that whole experience and that people feel that they're part of a community and a team and all of those things. Like even as we just redid all of our branding and our values and one of my one of our PTAs, we were going over it as we were trying to like fine tune it.
And he has such a good point where he is these values are good, but they're like us still trying to sell. To the people that are coming in is like the values that we're writing as a company are for everybody that comes through the door. If you are a patient, if you are an employee, whatever that looks like, everybody is encompassed in the values 'cause we're all in together.
So I think community is really critical. And obviously then that highly curated experience bringing in tools like obviously we partner with Eric and have a lot of tools from them that just help elevate the experience, whether it's, re nice recliners in the waiting room instead of traditional crappy entry way chairs.
Those types of things matter as well.
Marla: Yeah, and Mar can I
Michael: jump in with that?
Marla: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah,
Michael: sorry to interrupt. So you've been spot on and I agree a hundred percent because, we as a profession, we are a we're a soft. Feely heartfelt profession, right? And we I believe there's a healing power and touch.
So not only just like the literal touch, like we are, we as of us who are manual therapists can actually do amazing things with their hands. But even beyond that, just touching someone and connecting with them. And I agree, you're not gonna get that through chat g bt or on Google. So taking advantage of being able to develop that that rapport with the patient, develop the emotional connection, looking at them in the eye, practicing your active listening and empathizing with them and just building that that unmeasurable feeling.
When you talk to someone or you go through a transaction that a business and you leave there like. You don't know why, but it felt good, whether it was just the banter or the energy of the person you were dealing with. And then you also know when you leave a certain person or a certain transaction in the business, you're just like, ugh.
Like, why do I even come here? So I think if we realize the importance because no we as humans make decisions on an emotional level more than the cognitive level. So if we can use that to our advantage, bringing them in and connecting that way and giving them that experience, and yes, surpassing what their expectations are and going beyond that in unbelievable hospitality.
And someone mentioned the chat box. I have a book back here on reasonable hospitality that is one of my favorite books of all time. If we can incorporate that into our patient experience, you can't get that online. You can't get that virtually. You can't get that through a bot. So I think he's spot on and I think that's where we need to lean into to really go above and beyond in this patient experience.
Marla: Yeah. And that's like the Ford model. What is their family, their occupation, their recreation, and their dreams, and knowing all about that and bringing it up over and over to tie that back to their goals and their experience when they come into the
Michael: clinic.
Marla: And I would like to ask you Mike, Michael especially as well, so we obviously know when they're in there giving them that, that experience, but what.
What aesthetically too, think about the old practice then said, okay, generally you go into a practice and there's just these chairs and you're waiting there and it's like white walls and it's, that's just what you think of as a healthcare setting. But what does the new model, what does the new model look like?
Explain it to us. Explain what that experience like. I get when I go, to a this cupcake store that has, only the one special kind of cupcake comes out that day or Starbucks. What does the new model look like?
Michael: Hopefully it doesn't look like a stuffy 1980s healthcare facility.
Let's just hope that, okay, no more pastel colors on the walls. No more staples chairs in the waiting room. You better have a recovery section fitted with the sexiest recovery equipment in the world from hyper ice because that just aesthetically it's pleasing to look at, nevermind the value in it, right?
But, so I believe the. The space will tell a lot, right? So when you walk in, what are you hearing? What's the music playing? Are people laughing? Are people screaming? Are people crying? Are people having fun? Is it colorful? Is it vibrant? There's science behind this and I'm not a designer of any chance, but I've consulted with designers like what colors are gonna give people like a feeling of healing and calms, we put those in the private rooms.
What colors get people fired up and get the energy going, let's put that in the gym. And sometimes we change our music depending on who's in the facility. If we're really trying to tap in with someone and they really need a little extra boost, and let's just say they were feeling they were teenagers back in the eighties and we want to get them feeling like they were a teenager again.
We're gonna play some eighties music. 'Cause the science shows, if you listen to music to that represents a time in your life where you were most fit and healthy. You're gonna feel more fit and healthy, right? So let's play some bell bib devo for me when I walk into your office, because that's when I was feeling my best some nineties hip hop rap or something, right?
So I think. Yeah, get away from the stuffy. Like I know some people still wear lab coats and they dress stuffy, but no be more casual, be more welcoming colors, fun music and just don't make it a stuffy office. And then what goes along with that? I know there might be another question coming that, but who's there greeting the person, right?
You're gonna have a nice waiting room with more comfortable chairs and some music, and don't just have a crappy little table with magazines. Think outside the box and then who's there. Greeting the person is another thing, which we'll get to that later. Let me know.
Marla: Yeah, absolutely. And and Eric, I know you've got some really good feedback on this part and the subject as well, just in terms of diversifying your patient population and creating that, that long-term value.
What do you see as a modern clinic these days?
Eric: Ooh, so much. I love everything that, that folks are saying. And I, a couple things I'm just gonna I want to come back to, so Ben, I really loved what you said and sense of that human connection and obviously Michael, you were reinforcing it, I think.
The challenge with the information out there is it's overwhelming and it's hard to know. It's a trust. And I think that when everything's got an affiliate link behind it and everything's got a bias behind it, right? I think consumers, which is what patients are are looking for trusted resources and you can build trust through the conversations that connection.
And I think that's so key. And I think people are looking for education and at the end of the day, like all of this boils down to how are we enabling better quality of life? That's what I keep thinking about. If people wanna know why is wellness such a hot topic? It's 'cause it comes down to quality of life.
Where do people spend their two most valuable resources? Time and money, right? Where they see value. And very often on quality of life. I hope I don't knock on wood, but if I lose my job today, I can tell you my membership to lifetime fitness is one of the last things that comes off our budget. Because it has such an impact to our health and happiness and our per and our wellness.
I think that's, I think that's huge. When I think about what is the new experience or what's the gold standard or maybe the emerging gold standard, I think about a couple things. I think about a connected experience, a multidisciplinary experience that's result driven and efficient. So those are really high level things, right?
When I say connected, I'm not saying everything has to be through your phone. An app I'm really meaning one, I want human connection. I don't wanna bounce around to seven different places or have to go to seven different places that aren't talking to each other. Some people have the luxury or ability or bandwidth to quarterback their own health and wellness, but a lot of people need that center that, that quarterback.
And I think that's what physical therapy has always offered. There's always been that opportunity in my mind is what are some of the best position profession to be that quarterback of your quality of life, your day-to-day health and wellness. And so I wanna see that, and that comes in a lot of ways as people have said that comes to the infrastructure.
What's the environment I'm coming in? Is it fun? Is it motivated? Does it have the same state of the art technology that, professional athletics using that you get in a lifetime fitness that you get in other places? Do I have a golf simulator If that's something that's appealing to me, right?
Is there nutritional counseling? Is there other educational resources available? The infrastructure I think is huge, but also what's the tech, like the clinic I choose to go to is a prompt clinic and like the tech stack there is huge. It has to be easy, it has to be convenient, as a consumer.
I think those things are all, all huge. And I think, I'm definitely like losing my train of thought here, I'm going off topic, but I think one of the other things we have to realize is you are not just treating the individual walking through your doors. And Ben, I think you said this, right?
You're treating their whole family, you're treating their friends and their community. I hear this all the time from PT clinics we're jamming, we're busting at the seams. We don't have enough bandwidth, right? That's, we're a bit of a boom, I think with, increased direct access, et cetera.
And that's a wonderful thing. Both reimbursement rates going down and cost of doing business, going up. Jamming doesn't mean efficient, doesn't mean profitable, doesn't mean delivering the care you wanna deliver. And so I think to attract those types of patients that are gonna be lifelong high value patients, we have to think about the entire patient life cycle.
And I've said this a lot lately, like there's two things I can guarantee you as a non-clinician, but a consumer in the industry, right? My need is consistent, but it will vary, but it's also gonna go up over time. And I think the old model is really good at treating at the peak of the need when there's acute injury and struggles as we get patients better and struggles at the trough of their need and struggles to be preventative.
And I think if we want to be forward thinking like the healthcare people want, the quality of life people want, we've gotta attack that entire life cycle. And that doesn't have to mean it's a million cash based offerings, but am I offering education? Am I bringing in outside resources for patients to interact with, to stay connected through the entirety of that journey?
So my long-winded way of saying, I think it is about creating an environment that attacks quality of life in a meaningful way that is more than just my plan of care and my acute injury and understands me beyond just me, but understands the fact that I'm also now in a position where I'm managing the care of my parents and my grandmother as well as my two young kids, right?
If you can attack that, then you have a high value lifelong patient who's gonna come to their visits, who's gonna drive across town, who's gonna refer friends, who's gonna pay for recovery, or nutritional counseling or stretch, or whatever it is. Then you've got a really exciting model for the future, I think.
Marla: Oh my gosh. So much to unpack in that. So much to unpack and spot on every single part of it. I really like how you said it's beyond just the treatment and the exercises. It's the whole life cycle. It's from the very beginning to the end. And I do wanna ask the audience too, everybody think about your own clinic and think about what defines you.
What is something that really makes you stand out and defines you and put it in the chat because we have to, even if you're part of a company, not every clinic should be the same. There should be something defining in each one, going above and beyond, creating an experience, not just coming in and doing the exercises.
And Mike Ben would love for you guys to chime in on what Eric just said as well.
Michael: Yeah. If I can. Eric, that was awesome. That was poetic and it brought a tear to my eye. 'cause it's so true. And it's and we're not good at what Eric's talking about traditionally in healthcare, especially in the physical therapy space.
It's more than just this transactional way it's been forever. Patient sees doctor, patient gets diagnosis, patient comes to therapy, we do our pt we discharge them like don't discharge people like have these offerings. And it doesn't mean like ever say, it doesn't mean you have to just.
Cash pace memberships, this and that. But never lose contact with your patients. And here's the thing, if you've already built that trust and connection and you have a rapport with them and they value what you've given them so far, they'll want more. They're not gonna look at you as this cheesy salesperson 'cause you're offering them, we're doing like a monthly educational series on arthritis, or we're doing a, a 50 and over workout group here on Sunday morning.
Whatever it is, think outside the frigging box and don't just worry about is there a code for that, right? And don't just worry about this being so transactional. How much am I gonna get in for it? 'cause I guarantee the more you offer, the greater the value is. Those people are coming back and someone hinted at it and I'm already getting excited so I forget who said what, but if I'm treating Joe and Joe finds value, Joe's gonna send me his wife.
If she finds value, I'm gonna see her mom. If she finds value, I'm gonna see the whole Mahjong crew, right? They're all gonna come in. It's just gonna spread by the value you create and stop looking at everything on, is there a code that I can build for that? Or is what's the. Like the immediate return on investment.
'cause so many of these things that we do to build value and build a patient experience, you can't measure them. It's more of an art than a science. But trust me, it's gonna just build. And you're gonna see the numbers grow and you're gonna see the bottom line. And Eric said something that queued me on this.
I know a lot of $2 million businesses that don't make money that are not profitable. So it's not just how much revenue you're bringing in, like where are your expenses. Yes, there's a balance between looking at your bottom line and your ROI and doing the patient experience, but there's a big wide sweet spot that we have that we can be in there where we can be profitable, we can be business successful, we can be patient successful, we can thrive, we can be passionate.
Our staff cannot be burned out. There's plenty of space, but it can't be that tra transactional mindset from the, dull looking 1980s and 1990s clinics and the way we did things back then.
Marla: Yeah. And I encourage everyone to get rid of the word discharge. It should be graduation and it should be this, you're graduated this, but we are your provider for life, your primary care provider here to treat you with your first point of contact.
And we are we till next time. Absolutely. Like that word discharge means nothing to patients. It really is a kind of a gross word. Anyway, it should be you've graduated this episode of care. We can't wait to see you back in, to take care of any needs you have from here on
Michael: out. I'm sorry, I'm gonna the microphone one more time.
'cause Eric mentioned something about the quarterback. We are the quarterbacks of musculoskeletal care and I love that term. We are, we're trying to be the primary caregivers. It's like a triage. Like I have so many of old patients that'll still call me to this day and I'm not even working clinically.
That'll still call me like, I have this, I dunno if I should go to a doctor. I don't know if I should do this. But come in for a PT assessment and we can help triage them. Okay. You don't need to go see the surgeon 'cause this is not surgical. You don't need a round of pt, you just need to stop running up that mountain every morning, whatever it is.
Like we are able to just help navigate this confusing healthcare system with people and in such a meaningful way. And then it goes back to getting them in, connecting, looking at them in the eye. And now thanks to all the AI scribe tools and everything, I don't need my laptop in front of me and sit there and take notes and hammer away at my keyboard anymore.
I can put that to the side, let it record, and I can actually connect with someone and then listen to their pain and send them in the right direction, which might not be a plan of care. It might not be, but you know what? Even if I sent them somewhere else, or maybe it's a specialty that's not within my clinic, that'll come back to me.
I'm not losing a patient. I'm gaining more referrals in the future. Okay. Sorry Ben, I think I cut you off.
Ben: No. Good. I I just wanna double click too on the point of ROI investment and it not necessarily being a direct correlation. So over the last year and a half, we made this the, very aggressive move to go through relocating, remodeling and opening new in all of our clinics.
So a year and a half ago we hadn't started modernizing or any of that, and we've now gone through that process. And the reason I bring that up is I just want to encourage people to think about where some of the little wins can be on this. Where it's like no matter where you are right now, that investment in experience doesn't have to be, we're gonna get this whole new clinic with turf and all this.
And the perfect example, and now I'm using this all the time with my team, we did all the stuff right? We renovated, we put the turf in, we put the rubber in. We did all types of equipment, brand new facilities. We worked with Eric to bring in a bunch of stuff for hyper ice with chairs, and so we did the whole thing out.
One of the things that I get the most feedback in is our meritan clinic, and now I've done it in every clinic or started to do it in every clinic in our meritan clinic. The break room is right off of the entrance so people can see into the break room. And we invested and we bought a retro fridge that was in our, one of our brand colors.
Cost $700 didn't cost me any more than the regular fridge that I would've put in there for the same size. The amount of freaking compliments or mentions or patients being like, whoa, that thing's really cool. And I'm like, we just put all this money, into this huge clinic, all the turf, the equipment.
And the thing that I hear the most about is whoa, that retro fridge is so cool. So it's not. The investment and just encourage people I keep asking my team now, I'm like, where's the next retro fridge investment? Where's the next retro fridge investment? Because it's been so impactful and everybody talks about it, whether it's, the staff room, feeling like it's got some energy, and it was just a little decision saying Hey, how can we do something a little different that feels, that pops?
And my thought was originally it was just for the staff. Like I didn't even think about it from a patient standpoint. I'm like, how do we make the staff room a little more fun? Let's do a retro fridge instead of doing, just a regular, boring, traditional fridge. So there's a lot of little things like that you can work on a day-to-day basis.
And even again, with these clinics that we've done, we're now in the model and you have to be as. Asking that question every month where, yes, we did this huge investment, did this huge, now grand opening of all these new clinics, but every month as a team, now we're saying, what's working? What investments can we make?
Do we need different technology? Do we need to move this piece of equipment over there? It's an always evolving process. So I just wanna encourage people that are listening to look for not to get overwhelmed with these things as well. 'cause you can, if you've got the resources, great, but you can also make a huge impact with little investments.
Whether again, it's using the hyper ice stuff that we've gotten all of our offices, we've got the recliners that everybody goes nuts for. Or again, look for where the retro fridge investment is for your clinic. Ben, that's
Marla: great. Can jump. That's great. Oh, sorry. Yeah, please do. Go ahead.
Eric: Sorry. I just, I wanna jump on this 'cause I think there's two things that I really resonate.
I love everything you said, Ben, so I think, the fear of not knowing where you're going to or how to get there, that like paralysis that causes you not to act is the worst thing in the world, right? And we all know there's too much going on. We don't have enough time. You're running a small business, maybe a large business, however we're gonna qualify it, but there's always too much on everybody's plate.
Small changes go a long way. The retro fridge, like we, I'll just selfishly plug hyper ice we talk about all the time. Like even if you're not ready for a recovery room, do you have the right state-of-the-art tools that you're using in therapy? Things like a NormaTec, right? Things like the Venom Heat and Vibration series, right?
Those make a huge upgrade to the patient experience. Or what if we just put that in the heating room, right? And let's get rid of the old Sports Illustrated magazines or wherever else and get people off their phones and get them playing with a hyper volt or get them doing something meaningful, right?
There're these little micro opportunities that are huge. The other thing I want to call out, I'm curious for Michael and Ben's perspective, Marley, your feedback, but I think. If you wanna make a change in your patient experience, or let's rephrase that. I'm gonna go ahead and challenge and say, if you wanna make a change to your consumer experience, you have to start with your internal consumers, meaning your team, right?
The people that work for you. And I think if you look at case studies on some of the most successful businesses, it doesn't matter the industry, right? They start by taking care of their people at a higher level. Because if they nail that, then that translates to how those people treat your end consumer, right?
And so whether it's a really cool break room with a retro fridge, whether it's staff, lunches, whatever it may be, there's so many things like you can do. But I think that's another place that sometimes gets overlooked and doesn't always cost money. It takes energy for sure, and it takes a strategic thought process.
But if you wanna nail the external man, you gotta start with the internal consumer.
Marla: You're so right on that. Like honestly, if your clinicians are, even when you're doing your. Team meeting and they're sitting in these really comfortable chairs and they've got the, norm on and they're happy and they're actually getting a good experience too.
That translates to the patients and it translates to how the overall care and experience is the clinic, not just for the patients, but for the providers and the patients and the clinics as well.
Michael: Yeah, absolutely. Oh, Eric, I was saying you're opening up a door. We probably don't have enough time to even get into that part of this, but 100% you have to start internally.
If you're, if your team is burnt or not passionate or just not resonating with the, the mission and the values of the business, that's gonna trickle down into the patient experience. So 100% I think, I don't think we bypass that in this webinar because we don't think it's important.
'cause obviously we're focusing on the patient experience, but I thank you for bringing that up. 'cause if we didn't mention that it starts with the team, I think we're doing a disservice. And what comes to mind, and there's another book right here the New Gold Standard. It's, I show you guys right here.
I dunno if you guys have read this book, but read it. So what's the hotel chain here? The Ritz Carlton. But basically they have a line in there that I remember, and they talk to their staff that they say, we are ladies and gentlemen that are taking care of ladies and gentlemen. They empowered their staff and then they used to have these like values, 40 bullet points of what we do now.
They narrowed it down to two sentence and like just make it a good experience. You have the freedom to do what you want, but make it a good experience. But they respected and empowered their team and that carried on to obviously legacy of a amazing customer service that they've set the gold standard.
So thanks for mentioning Eric and I'll be quiet now.
Marla: And I think we, we really brought up a great part about. Taking care of our clinicians. They take care of the patients. But earlier, I can't remember if it was Ben or Michael who said that, it's just so easy for patients to get into this chat, GBT online, digital, and we have to make it just as easy for them to get to our clinic.
So I do wanna touch on that as well. And just, Ben, from your per experience too, from the moment a patient wants care, how have you made it so easy to get to your clinic? To get into your clinic and to know about what your clinic is about, that they choose you versus something else? Love to hear that Take.
Ben: Yeah. There's a lot of ways to go with that, and I think that it's an interesting question for right now because we are at a bit of an inflection point on that exact thing and spending a lot of time, resources on redesigning it. So we literally just launched our brand new website last night.
And that was something that we prac, we partnered with practice promotion, so shout out to them. Amazing job. But that was one of those things that for years was such a big pet peeve of mine. And it was tough to do a new website while we were doing renovations because we had some offices that were the new model and some offices that weren't.
And so to try and get that brand consistency and feel was challenging. But now that we're through that and majority way through renovations. One of my big pet peeves, and I see this all the time in healthcare, is you go to the website, it's a fancy brochure to give the, give people the information, but there is no actual like emotional connection to okay, I've got the website, I should, I look at it, I should.
Now when I show up, I should already have the emotional feeling and connection that I got from when I landed on the website as soon as I walked through the door. So that's a big thing that we've spent a lot of time in the last couple months focusing on. I think designing. I think some something that's super underutilized in healthcare is again, utilizing design for the experience.
So it's easy to get caught up in the design of, all right, this is the treatment area, right? This is what that looks like. It's how we want it to function. But there's so many nuances that you can design the journey from when they walk in the door. So one of the big things that we did with our new renovations and our continue to roll out is having you come in and there's a huge accent wall with our brand on it and our kiosks.
So we moved our kiosks away from the reception desk to now train our patients. That's a different experience 'cause it's so easy once you get to it and once you're used to it. To check in with the kiosk and it's so low friction. So now they know that they're still receptionists, but now the receptionist is to the side and that receptionist is there now to help with high impact troubleshooting.
When people need it, not just, oh, checking in. Okay, they're still gonna say hello, right? They still greet all those types of things, but it's now designing it to be like, how do we leverage the tech? But how do we also make the tech feel like it's a ex, it's a elevated piece of the experience coming into the clinic instead of this is annoying.
I'm already, I, and I, and this is what we were seeing right when we rolled out the kiosk. We were just putting them on the front of our reception desk and the person's already there, so people are coming up and they're like. Is it, you're already here, so what are you doing here? What's your point?
If like, why am I using this kiosk? You're here, that's your job. So it's really, there's a lot of opportunity of being really intentional on all aspects of clinic design and to design the outcomes that you want. Whether it be like how the patient is interacting with your tech, whether it's, how you are leveraging your staff to be, two x-ing or three x-ing their productivity because they're doing less low impact stuff and focusing more on the high impact stuff.
But, those are the things that I think we need to continue to think about is, every piece of that journey from when they are on the phone. Right now we're doing a lot of stuff, and I won't, it was definitely a conversation for another time, but really getting deep into AI and how that is.
Going to impact the customer or patient journey and experience. And one of my goals, and I hope my team doesn't listen to this, so I don't cause any panic, but one of my goals for early next year is going to be no missed calls. That is how do we get to zero missed calls? I've been talking with a couple of their practice owners about this and like, how do we leverage AI so that there is never a missed call?
And using agents and making sure that some of that lower impact stuff can just get answers, and if somebody calls on a Saturday at 10 and we're not staffed at the front, can they at least get, further down the road with what they're calling for at that point in time? So those are things that we're thinking about for the future.
Marla: And those are things that are creating the experience because the second you get a missed call, they're gonna go somewhere else that's easy, that's accessible that, like you said. Digital or whatnot, because they just need that right then and there. And I love what you said about using tech, but augmenting it.
So your front desk is still there to greet them, to provide that experience and that human touch and connection. But you've got that tech to make their lives easier. So that's not, that's making it easier to get into the clinic yet. Continue on the experience. And Mike, Michael would love from your perspective as well on how we're making it easy to get the patients to us and showing them what's different, showing them the experience to get them to us.
Oh, you muted.
Michael: I'm sorry. Is that better? Sorry. So I'm gonna jump on what you guys were just talking about because I think in including AI now, between no missed calls. Immediate benefit checks, scheduling, also being able to fill your schedule when there's a last minute cancel a no show. Not having the human do that.
That's great. So then what do we do with this human capital that we have? It's like integrating AI into your processes and systems right now. How do you do that? It's an art. You can't just say, okay, now I have this AI chat bot, or whatever it is, and just think it's all your problems are solved.
It's how are you? Implementing that into what's already going on, how is that gonna improve what's going on? And I look at it as a way now we can free up these humans to increase that patient experience and to make it improve that experience. I don't even know if I'm answering your question, but I think utilizing the AI just to make these things happen quicker.
Right. 20 years ago you called, hopefully you got a, an answer before the third ring. That was always our goal. If you, if someone answered, you gave 'em all your information, they spent a day or two trying to get your benefit checks, then you finally get a call back and then you agree upon your financial responsibility.
Then you book an appointment. All this can happen so fast nowadays. So now we can get people in and work on your schedules, try to arrange your schedules, and it's different with every clinic out there. So there's no one set of advice that I can give for anyone, but have the ability to get these people in for vs in a timely manner.
I know it's hard, we're all busy, right? We're all short staffed, but figure out a way and incentivizing your staff to be able to get these people in, but utilizing the technology and what's built into systems like prompt that we don't have an excuse anymore. I'm, I just think it's hard for us not to get the information we need to get these, the phone calls answered and get people on the schedule faster now than in the history of our profession, in my opinion.
Marla: Yeah. And I think a lot of people not asking the question, but I am sure they, they're thinking it. What are the different tools that you are using? Like Ben, you said no missed call. Michael, you said, the getting them in through wait lists and so forth, like what are the tools you're using beyond, and I know Prompt does a lot of 'em, but beyond Prompt two, what other tools are you utilizing to do that?
Ben: A bit of A TBD on that. And the reason I say that is right now AI is moving so fast and, I was talking with another practice owner about this the other day is like thinking back to like when we were assessing prompt and making that decision, right? It was a very different process.
Even, a year ago, like looking at phone services, like right now we're on Weave, right? We use Weave for that. And again, like I said, we're practicing, we're using practice promotions for website and some marketing things. And the AI tools are coming so fast and furious. And the last month and a half we've piloted five, four, or five tools.
Right now we're focusing mainly on verifications and streamlining that process, but then looking at where it then rolls into phone calls and all of those. And I would just encourage people that, like most of these companies will allow you to do some pilots because some of these things are moving so fast, so don't get.
Sold by, a savvy salesman, I would pilot 'em because you're gonna find where the cracks are very quickly. And so right now we're in the process of piloting and demoing a handful of tools that, again I won't share what they are right now 'cause I'll share who the winner is down the road.
But, looking at those applications and the one thing I would encourage people to be thinking about, which is something that I had a bit of a realization about in this pilot session is with ai, I starting to feel that moving forward it's not necessarily gonna be like the single solution.
Providers meaning okay, we are an AI specialist and we focus just on verification and we plug this in, right? We are an AI provider and we just focus on authorizations and here's our solution. We plug this in. The thing that has been most intriguing to me and to my team are the AI companies that are more generalists, that are helping build workflows for us that integrate across all of our platforms through AI agents and things like that.
Because that's something that hopefully, if that company works well, it is gonna be a constant evolving of evolving process where those AI agents are essentially employees, right? That's what that I am seeing this is going towards. Not sure that really is the answer you're looking for.
A little long-winded and not direct with my response, but there's a lot of really interesting stuff out there with partners in the AI space, and that's where, outside of who's our current users, which again, most of it's through prompt. We're spending a lot of time assessing where some of these three these third party AI agents can have an impact on our workflow.
And again, both to, to Michael's point, I see it was in the chat, I think Jerry Jerry Durham made that point as well. And that's something I keep talking to my team about this AI stuff. And the stuff that prompts rolling out, it's going to enable key people to two x three x 10 X their productivity.
So the people that are nervous about it internally, if they're an A player, it's just going to drastically increase their output and what they're able to do and the impact that they're able to create. So that's something that I will constantly try and use with the team when they start to get worried is this gonna replace me?
And I'm like, yeah, it's, but that doesn't mean you're not gonna have a job, right? If you are a good employee, we're gonna then look to see if this is not needed. Is there another thing for us to create for you to then create value with patient experience or, whatever it may be. Or, this just allows you to now be an office manager for two locations instead of one location.
Marla: And that's fantastic. That did help. And I love hearing that answer. And now I would wanna say what is, and Mike and Michael and Eric as well, what is maybe one piece of equipment or something clinical that sets you apart? So Ben went on the technology part, but love to hear what is a piece of equipment or something clinically that you've added that really you feel has set you apart and provided that experience.
And you could say more than one.
Michael: Okay. Good question. So I'm gonna date myself here, but when when I had my practice, we were the first clinic in the whole northeast part of the country to have an ultra g anti-gravity treadmill. So that was big at the time. It was huge, it was expensive. And we worked with endurance athletes, so it was a perfect fit for us.
So bringing in something like that. It was exciting. It was exciting for me. It was the most expensive thing I ever bought besides my home. So it was it was a big purchase, we looked at the ROI, we had the clientele that would fill it, but also for my staff, like we talked about, and Eric mentioned before, like taking care of the staff.
Guess what? My team was so excited to have this technology in their place of work. They were out telling their friends about it. So anyway, so that was a big one for us. 'cause we had the population that we could use and we used it in so creative ways. We had professional ballet dancers on there. We never even turned the treadmill on.
We just had them at a partial weight and we had them doing their points and jumps and everything. So we used it immensely. It was awesome. And then also, and I'm not saying this just 'cause Eric's on here, but when we started bringing in the hype rice products, we had a little display. And I was kidding.
Before. No, I wasn't kidding, but I mentioned it before, like hype brace is the sexiest products in recovery. They just look, they're sleek, they're, they look good. When you have the whole setup in the front, people like, oh, what's this? What's that? And then we had the products there that we used, right?
So we are using the hyper volts on them and people be, man, I wish I can get one of these. Guess what? We've got a closet full of those. So yes, you can get one of these put on the heated vibrate, the vibrating back brace, the venom. So before a back patient came in, if they were guarded, Hey, why don't we throw this on?
Come in 15 minutes early, we'll put this on you. So now you're like. You're already warmed up. You're ready. So when we do our soft tissue, when we do our dry needling, whatever, we're doing the manual part, you're ready to go, oh, let's stay a little bit later for recovery. Let's put you on this. So we had and Eric, I think you can, I don't know if you remember every single thing you sold to every single person, but we had almost every hyperized product and in our clinics.
So I think for my experience when I had my clinics, those were the two big ones for us. Obviously one was that huge expense and Eric's, those products are affordable. And then when you resell them, they're you're making money on that and it's great. So I hope I answered your question, Marla.
Marla: You did. You did. And Eric, I'll let you chat a little bit. 'cause I know now it'd be great to hear a little bit about how do we measure, how do we measure that these things are working? How do we measure the ROI? Ben, you've made a lot of changes in your clinic. How do you measure that's worked and that experience has changed the outcome for you?
Eric: Yeah, so I'll hit the, I'll hit both points. I'll try to HitEm quickly 'cause then I'm looking at the clock, realize where we're more. But, so I think a couple things. Look from a, what are those things, right? I'm gonna say hyper in a lot of ways. I represent that company, but I truly believe in see the impact, right?
I think if you don't have a NormaTec impression system, if you don't have some of the percussion and vibration tools in your practice, it's a huge miss. And one, there's insurance billing revenue for some of these, right? That is just huge and awesome and easy to justify. But the patient experience is huge.
And again, addressing your internal consumers first. We hit a 50 clinic group out in the west coast that two years ago, spent. A pretty decent chunk of change Rolling tech to all of their centers. Their number one goal was re-engaging their staff. They knew the patient experience, the outcomes, the insurance billing, the cash would all come.
But their number one goal in the entire implementation was designed around impacting the staff experience, their therapist retention, their recruitment, et cetera. I also, if you're evaluating what products make an impact, right? I think about what's the experience. Sure. Where does it fit into care, delivery, outcomes, validation, all the things.
But I also think, let's go back to how do we get people to your clinic and that question. You got one chance to make a first impression, right? And that first impression isn't the eval. That's a big part of the overall first impression, but it ain't, it's your website. And if you've got the same clunky website that everyone's had rebranded a million times, that by the way doesn't have your address on the bottom, which makes me so angry it's hard to find and get to, et cetera.
Huge mistake if you're using stock images and not showing me your people. Huge mistake. If your social media, your Instagram, you don't need to have a million followers and smashes on every but I should one click go there and in that little grid in your inline feed, get a great understanding of what the patient experience is.
Similarly, let's bring it back to products. Taking hyper hyperized tech to an event, a community health fair, a 10 KA team sport event, et cetera, is one of the lowest cost highest ROI ways to not just bring people in and give them a sense of what your clinic experience is. But bring them in the mindset you want them, right?
Preventative wellness, quality of life, primary care of MSK, quarterback, let's change how we bring people in from the, I got a script from my doc. I'm in pain to the wow. You have a myriad of solutions and you can manage that entire journey. So when I think about investments in product, I think about what's the end goal other than a sexy new toy.
Look from an ROI standpoint, I'll hit this quickly and then give it to Ben, who's much more important than me. I think there's a couple things that clinics that we work with across the country are always looking at. Revenue is real, right? And so I think one of the beautiful things behind hyper price tech is there is insurance billing with the norm tech to anchor it, but then it's a really strong starting point for cash base.
And cash based revenue is often scary for clinics, right? We always, my patients can't pay their copay, blah, blah, all the excuses. It's such an easy initial first step because you can introduce it in therapy and it's comfortable for your therapist and then transition folks graduate them Marla?
And so I think it's a great way to open up those service lines and often be a loss leader for your more expensive, right? Higher revenue adjunct therapy. So I think the cash based revenue is a real one, but how does it fit into that strategy? And then I think it's really about patient retention. An acquisition, but again, not just getting anybody off the street, but bringing them in, as I just said in the way you want them to perceive your value.
But let's be tangible, like we have clinics that have made NormaTec standard at the end of every visit, every patient gets it, whether they bill it or not. Every patient gets it. It's an experience upgrade. They conditions, they condition patients to stay 15 minutes after their appointment for it. And what they immediately see is decreased cancellations, right?
People don't wanna miss a free line massage. It's as silly as that. But it's real, similarly, we've got practices that that are on prompt that use some of text message notifications to make sure that all their former patients get a happy birthday text with a come on in for a free recovery session.
You can track that ROI that's very real in terms of the retention, additional plans of care, engagement, other services as well. I think those are the things we're looking at from an ROI standpoint. But to me it's I think one, you gotta find a starting point, right? And then you, but you've also really gotta look at how it impacts the entire ecosystem.
And again, I just think it's about changing the mindset of the people you're interacting with in your community to perceive your true value.
Marla: Yeah, that was amazing. I so much gold in that. Really love what you had to say. And before I put it back over to Ben, we are gonna, because it's getting close to the end put up, if anyone is interested in learning more about Hyper Ice and Eric, and asking him questions about prompt, about Michael Silva and what he is doing with consulting and about Ben and his clinic and Carlson ProCare, please feel free to identify it here as we will make sure to connect you with the appropriate person to learn more and to ask additional questions.
But really, honestly, just so much between how, what we're doing in this new day and age and elevating the experience and how we're using the different tools, the look, the feel, but also our websites, our people, our engaging. And Eric, I'd put one more point about monitoring and looking at the ROI recruitment, right?
Like therapists wanna come work at clinics that do have an experience as well and do have just different differentiation than the regular. Ben, punt it over to you a little bit 'cause I know you, you wanted to answer that question too.
Ben: Sure. Yeah, Eric hit on a lot of really important points.
I think the cash services is a big one. I see in the chats that people are asking about insurance billing and things like that. We've, we're starting we tried some of that and at the end of the day, we just felt that the cash service side makes more sense to do it. So ROI there, if you can launch it.
And I'd also encourage people like. I know cash services can be scary. I'll use an example of like internally just, this year we started to do a big push with social media and like Instagram and putting ourselves out there. And originally the team was really adverse to this. They were like, we nobody wants to take a video.
Nobody wants to give a video testimonial. No. Okay. So that was the team's perception. And the reason I'm saying this is 'cause a lot of times you'll feel that this perception that you have internally is your perception and it's not shared with your patients. Which was as soon as we started doing video testimonials and picture testimonials, we had patients fighting.
To do that. Meaning they're like, what do you mean? I saw yesterday that Sue was on there. How, what? I'm not, I'm chump change. You don't wanna put me on your social media like that. So just, take a look at where maybe your own fear and perception may be getting in the way of testing something that's viable.
The other one that is a really good way for like hyper ice, which we use and starting to use more as we're starting to do a lot more community engagement. Like the boots are such a freaking easy thing to you go to event and you're like, okay, we know once we get somebody in the facility, once we are in the facility, we know that it's so much easier.
All we need to do is get them into a facility and then we'll convert them to a patient. That's a perfect way, easy way of doing it. You go to a 5K race, you bring 'em there, you have somebody you, do 'em. There as a reason for somebody to engage and now they're sitting there in your booth for 10 minutes to talk to you.
It's such a easy way to then engage them and talk to 'em about what you do as a business. Same thing. You go to that event, here's a free QR code, come and you'll get a free session. And then we will also throw in a free screening, right? So now it feels like a VIP service, but now we're getting them in the facility.
So like that ROI is maybe not. So okay, here is the direct IED X on Google ads and I get X patients. It may not be that one-to-one relationship, but it is something that really compounds. Another thing that we'll say as I'll talk about just as a last piece of technology, we have been heavily invested in new fit and bringing that into our facilities.
I think right now we have seven of the nine in Connecticut. That's something where it's like, again, the ROI, there's some small things that we can look at on billing Neuro versus this, which is gonna give us a little more, and that's where you can justify it. But where the, I see the real justification is there's a shortage of PTs.
We've got way more patients than we can deal with and since. Bringing that in. We are now shortening plan of care is because people are getting better faster. And that's something that we as a profession, I think needs to keep figuring out. Like, all right, if we've got a massive shortage of PTs for our demand, we need to figure out how to get people better faster, right?
And that's where we are investing in these tools to do so we can better serve our markets. But then you also start seeing if you're the only one in your area. We've got multiple clinics where we've got people driving an hour and a half to come and see us to use this technology. And so that reach and that input, like again, it's not a direct one-to-one ROI, analysis, but those are things that compound with these technological advancements that help you really put yourself on the map in your communities. And and then help with recruiting as well. Recruiting is a tough one, but showing that you're investing in your team regularly with new technology is something that goes a long way.
Marla: So much great tips, tricks, and everything from all of you. Thank you guys. Thank you Ben. Thank you Eric. Thank you, Michael. Pleasure to have all of you on here and all of the comments from the attendees to thank you guys for attending. Really the one takeaway, the practice model of the future isn't about abandoning what works, but it's about elevating it.
It's about doing something different, really focusing on exceptional care, strong culture, smart systems and separating yourself from the rest of the pack. Until next time, keep innovating, keep reimagining, and most of all, keep empowering exceptional patient care. Thank you guys for joining today.
Eric: Thanks guys. Thanks all.