Spruce Powers Patient Communication for This DPC Clinic

Meet Dr. Robert Boyer

Dr. Boyer is a primary care physician and founder of Trailhead Clinics, a Direct Primary Care (DPC) practice in Grand Junction, Colorado. The clinic has been open for three years, is using Spruce to power their patient communication, and is growing rapidly. Dr. Boyer and his team are intentional about building a practice around their core values: patient safety, respect, convenience, and access.

As a membership-based primary care clinic, Trailhead seeks to increase the number of patients in their practice while still maintaining high- quality care and allowing enough time for patients to interact with their physician. By improving communication and access to care outside of the office, Trailhead can improve efficiency and profitability, saving time and money for patients and providers alike.

“Spruce is a great all-in-one solution for your communication. It makes your life easier and improves patient satisfaction. It’s a huge value for what you’re paying, and I wouldn’t have any hesitation in recommending it at all.”

Challenge

Trailhead is dedicated to patient accessibility. Before using Spruce, they lacked an integrated patient experience, and their information was unnecessarily duplicated between their communication platform and EMR. When they received voicemails, they would be sent to doctors as emails, which was confusing and inefficient for everyone involved. Dr. Boyer heard about Spruce as an established patient communication platform and decided to give it a shot. Trailhead was already using Hint and Elation, and they were excited about Spruce’s seamless integration with the two.

Solution

VIP Patient Access

Trailhead initially decided to implement Spruce for the patient-friendly experience. They invite all of their patients to download the Spruce app when they first join the clinic. “We prefer that patients have Spruce so we can send documents, labs, reports, pictures, and videos.”

Comprehensive Phone System

After having used Spruce on staff cell phones for some time, Trailhead overhauled their old phone system and also implemented Spruce’s VoIP desk phones. By coordinating calls on Spruce with patient and internal messaging, they have streamlined communication, improved efficiency, and driven growth in their practice.

Telemedicine

Dr. Boyer uses secure telemedicine on Spruce to answer patients’ questions quickly. One patient recently called on a Friday afternoon about an infection. Dr. Boyer initiated a video call, diagnosed her, and prescribed antibiotics immediately. Without Spruce, the patient would have had to go to urgent care or wait to see Dr. Boyer on Monday, at which point her infection might have worsened.

Benefits to Trailhead Clinics

Scalable

As Trailhead grows, Dr. Boyer can easily delegate and relay information between doctors and staff. For example, when he goes hiking, he can quickly toggle a setting in Spruce to make sure that another provider receives incoming messages while he is off the grid.

Efficient

As Dr. Boyer describes, “People aren’t coming to the clinic because we’re answering their questions on Spruce, which means we are improving efficiency. If all those patients were coming into the clinic, we’d have to have fewer patients per physician.”

Profitable

Spruce allows Trailhead Clinics to increase the number of patients per physician by offering advanced, accessible communication options that increase efficiency while maintaining quality of care.

Have questions or want to learn more about how Spruce can help your practice? Contact our team at sales@sprucehealth.com, or sign up for your free trial today.