{"id":2131,"date":"2019-08-27T10:55:54","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T17:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.sprucehealth.com\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2023-10-26T05:51:47","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T12:51:47","slug":"dpc-grows-practice-patient-satisfaction-with-secure-telemedicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sprucehealth.com\/blog\/dpc-grows-practice-patient-satisfaction-with-secure-telemedicine\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Scale your DPC Practice to 800 Patients with One Provider"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meet\u00a0Dr. Rob Lamberts<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Dr. Lamberts was one of the first physicians to open a Direct Primary Care (DPC) practice when he started his clinic in 2013. Located in Augusta, Georgia, Dr. Lamberts\u2019 practice now has more than 800 patients and is growing quickly. When he’s not caring for patients, Dr. Lamberts runs a blog filled with humorous\u00a0<\/span>healthcare poetry. Dr. Lamberts sat down with Spruce to talk about communication, technology, and how to scale your DPC practice.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/p>\n

Spruce: Thanks for speaking with us today, Dr. Lamberts! To start, tell us a little about your practice.<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had a DPC practice for over six years. I\u2019m one of the older DPC practices out there. I\u2019ve been doing it since February 2013 and I\u2019m up to 820 patients right now. It\u2019s growing very well. It\u2019s just me and two nurses, and we recently added another physician. We\u2019re all growing like crazy right now.<\/p>\n

I started a DPC practice when there were 100 or so of them in the country. I talked to three or four different folks to get ideas as to how to run a practice, but I didn\u2019t have the right tools. I didn\u2019t have a good EMR system, I kind of made it up as I went along. As we grew, so did the tools for DPC.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spruce: How did you grow to over 800 patients with one physician?<\/b><\/p>\n

My practice wasn\u2019t feeling full at 800 patients. So my answer was that I had to think outside of the office. I had to offer communication, and I had to have tools to handle problems in the most efficient ways.<\/p>\n

Patients will send me a message and say, \u201cI need to be seen,\u201d and the knee-jerk reaction is to schedule an appointment. Part of that is because that\u2019s the payment paradigm that\u2019s been here forever, but that\u2019s not the way it works in DPC. Plus, there’s also the idea that you have to be nice to the customer and see them when they want to be seen.<\/span><\/p>\n

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Patients often think that being seen is what they need, but the reality is they don\u2019t need to be seen, they just want to be heard, they want to communicate<\/strong>.[\/perfectpullquote]<\/p>\n

I mean, sometimes we do need to convince people to come in \u2014 it\u2019s a balance. But my daily schedule in the office is not that busy. Instead, every day there are secure messages and texts and phone calls and emails, which I\u2019m trying to figure out how to best handle. It\u2019s the new challenge of how to efficiently communicate well.<\/span><\/p>\n

We only allow for two new patient appointments per week, which is a great problem to have! I keep looking at my numbers and noticing that we don\u2019t have people leaving, and I don\u2019t want them to leave. At some point, we\u2019re going to have to figure out a strategy for adding other physicians or PAs within the practice. I want to keep growing, because I\u2019ve always been of the belief that if you’re not growing,<\/span>\u00a0then you\u2019re shrinking. B<\/strong><\/span>ut there\u2019s no doubt that the center of our practice is not the office visits, it\u2019s communication<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]People will say communication is very important for healthcare, and the answer is that it\u2019s not “very”<\/em> important for healthcare; communication <\/span>IS<\/span><\/i> healthcare.<\/span>[\/perfectpullquote]<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t do healthcare without communication, because it\u2019s about listening, it\u2019s about communicating information to the patient, it\u2019s about accurately getting and sending out information. And whatever tools you can use to do that have the power to really help.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DPC<\/p>\n

Spruce:\u00a0How have you utilized technology in your practice?<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

When you’re adopting technology, you don\u2019t want it to get in the way of patient care. Sometimes, health tech becomes the centerpiece of the practice. That\u2019s what electronic medical records have become in typical healthcare models. It\u2019s all about the record and not the patient \u2014 the patient is just data for the record, not the other way around.<\/p>\n

The first thing you want is a system that understands the patient and meets their needs with the least amount of friction possible. When you pair the tools with a new paradigm, it enables you to greatly enhance your quality of care.<\/span><\/p>\n

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]What are we selling as DPC doctors? The product is access. We\u2019re giving patients access to me, to our staff, and to high-quality care.<\/strong>[\/perfectpullquote]<\/p>\n

To do that, you have to have the right tools that enable you to give access to patients in a way that they actually value.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spruce: Thanks, Dr. Lamberts!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Want to enhance your practice with modern, secure communication?<\/b><\/p>\n

Learn more about Spruce.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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