How Healthy Brain Center Made Itself Easier to Reach on Spruce

Healthy Brain Center is a Los Angeles psychiatry team specializing in adult and geriatric care, led by Dr. Shadee Giurgius alongside his father, Dr. Moataz Giurgius. When COVID closed their physical office, the team moved its whole front desk into Spruce: calls, texts, and voicemails in one place, a custom phone tree, and secure messaging patients start with a simple text. New-patient inquiries get an automatic reply with registration details, saved messages and quick-reply buttons answer routine questions instantly, and the on-call doctor gets after-hours alerts for emergencies. Spruce brings phone, texting, secure messaging, and fax together so patients reach the right person faster.

A bit about the business…

The Healthy Brain Center is a team of psychiatrists that see adults 18+ for psychiatric and memory disorders including:

• Depression
• Anxiety 
• ADHD/ADD
• Bipolar Disorder
• Substance Use
• Autism Spectrum
• PTSD/trauma
• Insomnia
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Schizophrenia and psychotic disorders
• Medication Management for most psychiatric disorders
• Memory Problems (including Alzheimer’s/Dementia)

Shadee Giurgius. M.D. practices alongside his father, Moataz Giurgius, M.D., who has been in practice for 30+ years. Dr. Moataz Giurgius is Board Certified with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in addition to completing a UCLA Fellowship in Geriatric Psychiatry.

What first brought you to Spruce?

When COVID closed our physical office we had to scramble to figure out how we would convert the clinic from in-person to TeleHealth. Through sheer luck, our search for the “Best health office management app” led us to find Spruce, and we are truly grateful for that fortunate discovery.

How do you use Spruce at work?

We have converted our entire front desk staff to be in Spruce (calls, texts, voicemails, you name it). Patients are able to first SMS us their question, then we invite them into Secure Messaging. After this, their answers are sent by our front desk through the secure channel.

We changed our “old-school” answering service that went to a group of people answering calls to instead have the calls come to us directly to avoid delay, plus these messages are texts or transcribed voicemails, which allows our doctors to see messages instantly in real-time. We had a voice actor record our Phone Tree prompts and then sent the files to Spruce who flawlessly uploaded them and created the custom Phone Tree for us. This eliminated our cumbersome front desk phone system and answering service.

Our on-call doctor now gets alerts to his phone after hours for any crisis or patient emergency, which enables him to call the patient back immediately. All NEW patient inquiries get an automatic SMS back with our directions and website where they can immediately start the process of registering as a new patient, which helps them get seen sooner.

Bulk messaging is very helpful to get messages out to our patients for any reminders or new changes the office implements.

We can now have patient’s send us their billing questions in Spruce, and our biller responds right there to them. Patients love the ease of not having to call a biller during limited business hours.

The Spruce BUTTONS are a rescue and eliminate any patient wait time, giving patients the answers they need immediately. Such as “When is my appointment?”…..when patients click that button it responds with the link to their patient portal that has this appointment info instantly.

We are able to send PDFs of patients’ lab orders for them to get their blood work handled seamlessly.

When patients need a doctor’s note for work, we can send a PDF right there in Spruce, and they love it.

For insurance changes, patients can send us photos of their new insurance card while also getting the automatic prompt to fill out our new insurance form.

The “Saved Messages,” or dot-phrases as some call them, with favorite responses/phrases is a huge help and allows patients to have immediate answers while saving the staff time too.

Faxes are amazing in Spruce, I think it is the only system I have seen in my 20 years in medicine that allows you to respond to a fax PDF as if texting someone to generate the response fax to the sender. This made replying to pharmacy questions instantaneous. Recently we had to unfortunately switch faxes to our EHR, which is not as easy as it was with Spruce, so I definitely recommend Spruce faxing.

What is your favorite Spruce feature?

The Spruce support team is very responsive and helpful, often with same-day or next-day response. The team answers your questions individually and non-robotically, helping you to customize your practice how YOU want it. 

What do you like to do most when you’re not working?

When I’m not working…I’m probably working.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a busy medical office run its front desk on Spruce?
Calls, texts, and transcribed voicemails all arrive in one place where staff and providers see them in real time. A custom phone tree routes callers, automatic replies greet new-patient inquiries with next steps, and saved messages with quick-reply buttons answer routine questions instantly.

Can patients start with a text and move to secure messaging on Spruce?
Yes. Patients can first text the practice with a question, and staff can then invite them into secure messaging for anything that needs to stay protected, clinical questions, insurance card photos, and PDFs like lab orders or doctor’s notes can all move through the same conversation.

Can the on-call doctor get after-hours alerts on Spruce?
Yes. An on-call provider can receive alerts to their phone after hours for any crisis or patient emergency, so they can call the patient back immediately rather than relying on an answering service.

Is Spruce HIPAA-compliant?
Spruce supports HIPAA-compliant communications across phone, texting, faxing, and telehealth. Every eligible Spruce organization automatically receives a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) as part of the terms of service, with no separate agreement, opt-in, or additional fees required. You electronically agree to the Spruce BAA when you create an organization on Spruce, and you can review this agreement in our terms of service.

You can learn even more about Dr. Shadee Giurgius and The Healthy Brain Center on their website: www.HealthyBrainCenter.com 

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