Integrative holistic neurology clinic uses Spruce for accessible communication across marginalized communities

Meet the team at Be Well Holistic Health, a non-profit integrative holistic neurology clinic located in Portland, Oregon. At Be Well Holistic Health, their providers specialize in a wide variety of gentle modalities that are in alignment with their mission and principles of care. They are unified in approach while coming from many different styles of holistic medicine. You will find acupuncturists, chiropractors, functional neurologist, naturopathic doctor, advanced practice nurse, physical therapist, massage therapists, nutritionists, therapist and counselors, and many more.

Dessa Bingley, principal owner and licensed acupuncturist, shared some insights into how the team uses Spruce. Read on!

About the business
Be Well serves patients from marginalized communities—trans, queer, black, deaf, critical thinking deficits, brain injuries or other neurological issues, and more. Inclusivity is paramount to how we serve patients and Spruce has been a big part of that. We have 22 providers and last year we had 9,977 patient visits!

How long have you been doing it?
We opened in October of 2011 and have been steadily growing over the past twelve years.

What first brought you to Spruce?
The Spruce app makes it convenient for patients to exchange messages with providers and to be met where they are. We needed a texting solution for people with screen time sensitivities and Spruce fills a need for having accessible communication.

How do you use Spruce at work?
Be Well contractors see Be Well patients from their own office and Be Well handles all the back office and admin work. Providers can log in to Spruce and communicate with their own patients, which is part of what makes what they do sustainable.

In December, we leveraged Spruce Bulk Messaging to reach 500 customers by Jan 1, the date by which we had to submit prior authorizations for our patients with Medicaid. We had to request from the state that the visits be allocated to Be Well – a complicated admin task. We required information on the kind of treatment needed by each patient and what would be allocated to other clinics so we wouldn’t overtreat the allotment at Be Well. The outcome is that we were able to meet our deadline using this core Spruce feature and we saved a lot of time from not having to manually reach out to 500 customers! We also used the Bulk Messaging feature as a marketing tool to invite patients to a workshop on migraines and we filled half the spots in an hour.  

What is your favorite Spruce feature?
Spruce has the option to unread a message, which is pivotal for us. We have so many admins that we need to know when something has been handled, not just read. That’s a big difference between Google Voice and Spruce.

How do you describe Spruce to others?
Spruce allows that extra touch in a way we can record it and keep track of it. Spruce is Google Voice on steroids.

Learn even more about Be Well Holistic Health.

New to Spruce? Try it out FREE for 14 days: https://l.sprucehealth.com/startspruce