The specialist contacted VMORE as he was planning a return to Australia from overseas to set up in private practice. He required skilled staff, with a supporting technology solution, to be located an hour south of Perth.
This location presented significant workforce challenges, including:
- A skills shortage
- Part-time support as opposed to full-time
- A tight-knit community population, particularly of concern due to the sensitive nature of the specialty in which the Doctor practised.
What support was the Doctor looking for?
In particular, the Doctor was seeking a remote, or virtual solution that could address the following key challenges and criteria:
- Workforce | Deliver a personalised service without the ability to have an on-site Secretary
- Software | A solution that was hosted or web-based for centralisation of clinical and financial record keeping
- Financial | Capacity to process payments remotely due to offsite staff
- Security | Ensuring the waiting room was managed in a safe and secure manner
What did VMORE do?
VMORE designed a customised, bespoke practice model for the Doctor using three leading industry solutions. Additional strategies were implemented to support the safety and well-being of the Doctor and provide a seamless patient experience.
VMORE chose a telehealth platform and a 4G Wi-Fi dongle to deliver a secure, peer-to-peer ‘video reception’ service between staff in Queensland and the practice in Western Australia.
This solution created a remote reception and waiting room view to actively monitor and assess the physical safety of the Doctor.
Staff based in Queensland were able to interact with patients via video, greeting them in the practice management software which then notified the Doctor of their arrival.
On completion of the consultation, the Doctor would send an internal message via the practice software to the remote team for the appropriate item number to be billed.
The remote secretary then arranged any follow-up appointments with the patient directly over video and processed payment via an integrated payment platform. This ensured that credit card details were not stored or vocalised to others in the waiting room, with patients using debit cards if preferred.
What was the result?
VMORE delivered a competent and professional team of support staff and designed a strategy to mitigate issues with non-attendance of on-site staff.
The real-time ‘video reception’ service provided an opportunity to expand on connections already made with patients over the telephone and added an interesting topic of discussion.
The additional benefit of being able to remotely process EFTPOS payments and facilitate patient claims, in real-time, from over 4,000 kilometres away delivered a more positive and seamless patient experience and ensured the Doctor received payment on the date of service.
“It has been a pleasant surprise to discover that I have established warm and effective professional relationships with VMORE staff even though we only meet over video conferencing.
I have found the practice managers to be responsive, effective, and easy to work with. Whilst a few patients are taken aback by the fact that their receptionist is on a laptop screen, most are a little bemused and engage well with the system.
I have no regrets about establishing a completely virtual medical reception.”
