A practitioner and a marketer
Paul Smith—allied health practitioner and experienced digital marketer—offers his advice on how you can begin to grow your clinic’s online presence without any marketing experience.
There's more to digitising your clinic than meets the eye. In this guest blog, digitisation expert Diana Xhumari explains the ways 'going paperless' can transform your clinic for the better.
Diana Xhumari, Dataplayer·
In a world where social distancing is rewiring social norms and the ways business is done, ‘going digital’ seems to be a necessity these days. And with companies around the world already becoming more digitised, making the switch for your clinic may be more imperative than ever.
If you’re not already using a practice management system (PMS) like Cliniko, you probably have embraced technology as part of your everyday life and enjoy the benefits and convenience it can bring. And maybe you’ve wondered how straightforward it might be to implement some of this technology into your business and reduce your clinic’s reliance on paper.
Well, it’s not always easy, and there are plenty of new tools and skills you’ll need to learn, but running a paperless clinic can be a powerful asset to your business.
You can have all your clinic’s information at your fingertips and make decisions without having to go through papers or even be at the office. Your clients can also book and confirm their appointments online, even when your staff is not in the clinic.
But how? Let's go through all the concerns and benefits together.
There are three main stages when it comes to implementing technology: digitisation, digitalisation, and digital transformation.
Digitisation means converting analogue information into a digital format, like moving from papers to scanned documents that can be accessed and shared digitally.
Digitalisation builds on top of that with structured processes to make the workforce more efficient and less prone to waste. This is where automation can have a big impact and the cost savings start to roll in.
Lastly, digital transformation is the ultimate stage of a business earning more with technology—either through new revenue streams or repurposing resources to better serve your clients. So the focus here is on people—not technology.
Even though the term "paperless clinic" might imply the first stage, digitisation, we will focus on ideas involved with the other two steps.
Healthcare is a critical and essential industry based on necessity and well-being. Its essence and purpose are about delivering good health without distractions or complications. So why should your clinic make the extra investment to introduce new technology?
That means you also stay focused on profits and financial well-being, and you need to have the ability to quickly and easily measure, analyse, and improve your clinic’s performance in three main categories:
All three of those steps will be easier if you have digital processes, because:
You’ve likely noticed by now that we’re not really talking about technology at all. That’s because what’s most important for ‘going digital’ with your clinic is the strategy, the approach, and people management and interaction. Technology is more of an enabler and not the end product. And people are crucial for its success.
It’s important to make sure your goals are clearly defined and transparently communicated to your team. People need to know what they’re working towards so they can make independent decisions that align with the clinic’s goals.
Your team and practitioners might all have wonderful intentions and give their best effort, but they still need to know what their work means, have easy access to reviews on how they are performing, and have regular coaching and insightful talks based on those reviews
You can use internal targets, like financial quotas or service KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), as a way to have constructive conversations that guide your team towards those goals. And having your data stored digitally, makes all that information much easier to access.
One example of a non-financial KPI would be the number of "No show" appointments at your clinic. These are inconvenient, and if left unaddressed, they can hurt your business in the long run.
Keeping track of this number is easier to do when the information all sits in a digital place that allows for aggregation, classification, and analysis. You can't get all that info from glancing at a pile of papers. A large stack of documents might make you feel busy and give you the impression that the clinic is doing well. But, the real insights lie between the pages.
Healthcare, being a highly regulated industry, has a long way to go before catching up with the rest of the business world in regard to digital transformation. But when it comes to allied healthcare specifically—a human-centred industry focused on well-being—that journey can be shorter and easier to manage. That’s because compared to traditional facilities, allied health clinics are generally smaller, softer on bureaucracies, and more accepting of change.
Technology is continually evolving, and that might make you uncertain of your investment or the effort required to ‘go digital’. But, if you think of it in terms of the impact it will bring to your business, your team, and your clients, technology can be an amazing facilitator of growth and efficiency.
Paul Smith—allied health practitioner and experienced digital marketer—offers his advice on how you can begin to grow your clinic’s online presence without any marketing experience.
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