Episode Transcript
[Intro] 00:00:04 Welcome to the get and down with digital health podcast, sponsored by Mend, we hope to inform and inspire you on a wide variety of healthcare topics. We're grateful you're joining us today and now on with the show.
[Brandon Worley] 00:00:20 What up everybody? And welcome back to another episode of getting down with digital health. I'm your host, Brandon Worley. And today we will be speaking with Mend co-founder CEO and Matt McBride, Matt, what's up, man, how you doing?
[Matt McBride] 00:00:33 Doing great, Brandon. Excited for, uh, another entertaining show here.
[Brandon Worley] 00:00:37 We are going to be covering, uh, telemedicine KPIs that every healthcare leader should know and track. We have a new ebook, an on-demand webinar, everyone watching should check out. We have a Buzzfeed left brain, right brain test today that I am gonna fail epicly uh, and finally an informative healthcare topic meant to inspire and inform. So, uh, so let's get into some of the telehealth KPIs, uh, and insights for the audience. Today. We have KPIs and data to share on the following. Uh, first and foremost, NoShow, uh, next we'll be talking about wait times, uh, we have satisfaction scores, uh, that Matt's gonna talk about, uh, and then successful visit percentages. Yes.
[Matt McBride] 00:01:25 Well look, let me start with you. You've talked to a lot of prospects, a lot of our customers, what is the main problem folks are looking to solve that are implementing telehealth solutions?
[Brandon Worley] 00:01:37 You know, their goal is they want to care for more patients, uh, and help more patients, you know, be healthier. So for them it's no-shows, they have a lot of patients that just simply forget about their appointments. They just don't show up for their appointments. They have conflicts or whatever, and so they have room on their schedules, uh, and they wanna try to fill those slots. So no-shows without a doubt is the big thing.
[Matt McBride] 00:02:00 The great news about telehealth is the opportunity to drive your NoShow rates down into the single digits. Right? We see the majority of customers driving no-shows, um, you know, could be as low as 4%, 6, 7, 8, 9%. If you were, if you were at a 9% no-show rate, that'd be about a 60% reduction over the 23% national average. Um, and we'll see a lot of behavioral health groups, uh, behavioral health can average, uh, around 37% for NoShow and we'll see those groups drive those down into the single digit. So definitely something important to track. You may be tracking no-show rates, uh, overall across the organization, but how about in person versus virtual? How does that stack up and, and compare and what should, what is a good virtual NoShow rate? It should definitely be in the, in the single digits, if you're not in the single digits. Um, you know, some places that I would look at would be the type of contact information that you have. Are you texting? Is there any friction in the system, you know, uh, things along those lines, uh, but should definitely see much lower no-show rates for a virtual appointment.
[Matt McBride] 00:03:32 The next important KPI to track is wait times, uh, organizations might be tracking wait times for, in person visits. What about virtual? So, um, if you add up all of the wait time across all the millions of visits that we had last year at mend, there's about 19 years of time spent waiting. Um, so that's Wild.
[Brandon Worley] 00:04:02 That's a huge number.
[Matt McBride] 00:04:05 Yeah. And, and there's definitely a huge opportunity to take advantage of this time. Um, Brandon, I know, you know, about our enhanced virtual waiting room experience. Um, and it would, maybe you could just explain that a little bit because we don't have patients looking at a blank screen, maybe saying, you know, somebody is waiting to join, your host will be with you soon. What, what do, can you kind of describe that experience that we've created in the waiting room?
[Brandon Worley] 00:04:38 Yeah, absolutely. And so, um, clearly COVID, you know, when it came about, everybody was just scrambling to get a solution, uh, just so that patients and providers, you know, could interact and no one was really caring so much about the experience. It was just more the need for them to get the care. Um, but what has evolved from that is then, you know, uh, healthcare organizations of all sizes are starting to think about, okay, well, virtual care is here to stay. I need to start thinking about the patient experience. Uh, not only because we wanna provide a better or they wanna provide a better one, uh, for their patients within their own organization, but it's also a competitive advantage in the marketplace. So I know, uh, internally, uh, I know Matt, you and I talked about that a lot. And what we ended up coming up with was the enhanced virtual waiting room, uh, because there was a lot of confusion, uh, before we launched this of patients wanting to know, are they in the right place?
[Brandon Worley] 00:05:28 You know, if they're waiting and looking at a blank white screen for 15, 20, 30 minutes, um, you know, they, they don't know if they're in the right spot. They're not sure if the provider's still gonna come, you know, they're afraid to venture away from their screen and there's a whole slew of confusion caused by it. So when we launched our enhanced virtual waiting room, which is a Netflix like experience with, um, specialty specific, uh, content and curated, uh, videos and other content on there, we saw a 23% increase, uh, in patient satisfaction. And patients actually rated us a 98.8%, uh, satisfaction score, uh, when surveyed post visit. So it has been a huge plus for us, uh, from a product standpoint, uh, and the patients and providers seem to be loving it. So, um, it's definitely where things are going.
[Matt McBride] 00:06:22 Yeah. So, I mean, speaking of satisfaction rates, that's the benefit really that you get, if you, if you, uh, add to that experience, when somebody is waiting, you can see these other numbers from the healthcare coalition and the national library of medicine that, that we're studying, uh, satisfaction rates specifically for telemedicine, primarily during the pandemic, you can see, I mean, these, these satisfaction rates are okay, you know, this is like a C plus and a B minus, right. Um, but if you wanna get an a, uh, when we have that enhanced virtual waiting room experience, we see those satisfaction rates jump up to 94%. So, uh, definitely what you do with that time and the experience that you create there. And I think, you know, we put a lot of good educational content in there. You know, there's Ted talks in there. You can learn how to meditate, learn about heart health, etc.
[Matt McBride] 00:07:20 When you kind of create that experience and you put that educational content, it says, oh, this is a thoughtful healthcare organization, right. That's putting content out there to help me. I have some entertainment while I wait, but I can learn something. This group cares about my health, right? So I think that that's another factor that plays into that. Um, since we're talking about telehealth and kind of where our data has come from before we get to the last KPI here, I'm just gonna go back a slide, um, and just look at demo on mend real quick, um, in how we sort of, you know, send a link through text and email, the person can enter their date of birth and that's it. They can connect on any browser they want, so it can be a mobile device. It can be a laptop, tablet, or computer doesn't matter. Any, it's all just frictionless, right? It's fast, secure, easy, um, very scalable. So, um, with all the bells and whistles, all the workflows, you know, that you, you would ever need, uh, to have a visit with a patient.
[Brandon Worley] 00:08:34 And I can tell you in all the calls that I've had with people, ease of use is always the number one thing for both provider staff and patients of, of, of highest on importance
[Matt McBride] 00:08:46 One of the last KPIs we're gonna cover today is being able to look at the completion rates of a telehealth visit. Um, this could be having a telehealth appointment type and looking at those visits and how they get coded and billed, or if they got canceled or now showed. So this is something that you could look at through the practice management system. Um, at mend, we do have a benchmark for this. Um, it may not be perfect cuz we don't always know if the visit was coded and built, but we look at a couple different factors. If groups are reporting back to us that the visit was checked out, uh, we assume that that was a successful visit. If we see connection, um, with participants for at least two minutes, that's another sign of a successful visit. So, uh, we see, uh, com successful com completions around the 94% range. Um, you know, why wouldn't a visit be successful, right? Well that's where no shows, um, or maybe something else happened that, uh, interrupted a visit. But, uh, while you're thinking of KPIs and thinking of, of tracking no-shows and some of the other ones that we mentioned today, you wanna also make sure that, uh, you know, the difference in completion rates for an in person versus virtual versus maybe across all your appointments for an organization.
[Brandon Worley] 00:10:29 We within our own organization talk about KPIs on a daily basis. Uh, and I'm sure a lot of the healthcare organizations and, and folks, uh, representing those organizations who may be listening to this podcast probably do as well. Uh, so to try to help you along with that, uh, we have an e-book and on demand webinar titled the top 12 telehealth and digital patient engagement KPIs, every health tech leader must have, uh, Matt for those, uh, who are interested in checking that out. How can they, uh, view or participate in that webinar?
[Matt McBride] 00:10:59 So we have the content in an ebook. If you prefer that format, or maybe you wanna listen to the webinar, maybe you're doing some other work and you wanna just listen to the webinar while you're, uh, cranking out some other work. Um, we have everything within the resources section of mend.com. Okay. So very easy mend.com in the resource section, you can go to our eBooks or our webinars and you can get, uh, all of the KPIs that we feel are important for, uh, telehealth and patient engagement. And then we're gonna share all of our data across millions of visits so that you have a benchmark and kind of know, uh, what is a good number, what, what, you know, what's, uh, sort of an average, uh, you know, where should the data be, where where's a good benchmark for this. So we're gonna share a lot of data. So in addition to the KPIs, you'll get a ton of data.
[Brandon Worley] 00:12:02 Yeah. So everybody please, uh, to go to the, go to our website, uh, and check those out.
[Matt McBride] 00:12:08 So now it's, uh, time for a little bit of fun.
[Brandon Worley] 00:12:12 <laugh>, let's see how my brain works. Uh, I'm hoping it, it actually does work. So, all Right.
[Matt McBride] 00:12:18 We have a left brain, right brain Buzzfeed test. I mean, this is highly scientific. Do you wanna, uh, take a guess before you get into it?
[Brandon Worley] 00:12:35 Um, I think it's probably a bad sign going into this that I forget which brain, uh, represents what capabilities. So I'm just gonna go midbrain, but, let's do this test and see where I land.
[Matt McBride] 00:12:51 All right. So we got the first one vision test, uh, look closely square one and square two on the image. Are they the same color?
[Brandon Worley] 00:13:05 No
[Matt McBride] 00:13:10 Grid look closely at the circle shapes that appear where the lines intersect. What color are the circles?
[Brandon Worley] 00:13:21 White.
[Matt McBride] 00:13:23 It's a tough one. That one messes with you, doesn't it?
[Brandon Worley] 00:13:25 Yeah. I see a little black in there too, but the final answer. White
[Matt McBride] 00:13:31 Are the horizontal lines straight or on an angle.
[Brandon Worley] 00:13:40 Ooh. Uh,
[Matt McBride] 00:13:43 What is your,
[Brandon Worley] 00:13:44 I'm gonna say straight?
[Matt McBride] 00:13:50 How about the vertical lines
[Brandon Worley] 00:13:52 Angle?
[Matt McBride] 00:13:58 Does the pattern appear to be moving clockwise or counter clockwise? Or you can say it's not moving,
[Brandon Worley] 00:14:09 Not moving.
[Matt McBride] 00:14:15 What do you notice first? An apple two faces something else?
[Brandon Worley] 00:14:20 Uh, I see an apple, but I also quickly see the faces. So I'll say apple. That was the first thing I saw.
[Matt McBride] 00:14:27 All right. What do you notice first? A landscape with Hills and trees. A man's face, something else,
[Brandon Worley] 00:14:36 Something else.
[Matt McBride] 00:14:41 What do you notice? First paper, airplane, and umbrella or something else?
[Brandon Worley] 00:14:45 Umbrella.
[Matt McBride] 00:14:50 What do you notice first? A brain, a group of babies or something else.
[Brandon Worley] 00:14:54 <laugh> a brain, but I see the babies. That's creepy. <laugh>
[Matt McBride] 00:15:01 Um, are the orange circles in the image below the same size or different sizes?
[Brandon Worley] 00:15:14 Same size.
[Matt McBride] 00:15:18 Look at the white rectangles below is the top rectangle larger than the bottom poor. Are they the same size
[Brandon Worley] 00:15:32 Larger
[Matt McBride] 00:15:37 Are the red circles in the image below the same size or different sizes?
[Brandon Worley] 00:15:41 Same size,
[Matt McBride] 00:15:45 Final question are the tops of the tables, all the same size or slightly different sizes,
[Brandon Worley] 00:15:58 Slightly different sizes.
[Matt McBride] 00:16:03 There you have it.
[Brandon Worley] 00:16:04 I'm right brain. At least have a brain, so, all right. That's good. Right?
[Matt McBride] 00:16:10 And look, a naturally creative person. I think that's pretty accurate.
[Brandon Worley] 00:16:15 <laugh> so now that everybody knows, uh, that I am a right-brained person, uh, as well as, uh, something that I just learned from myself, uh, we have an informative healthcare topic for you that is meant to inspire you to become more healthy. Matt, what do you have for us today?
[Matt McBride] 00:16:31 Intermittent fasting. So this is, this was one of those buzz terms. You started hearing a lot and I'll, I'll kind of make a note of, of some of these. And I'll ask my doctor about it. I thought, I thought this was like, this is like the fad diet, right? And it's like, uh, you know, Adkins or Tito or whatever. So I asked my doctor about it and then she highly recommended it. And so, uh, not something that I do all the time, but I do it. Uh, I do it periodically. I actually just started it up again. Um, uh, for a couple different reasons. There's a lot of different benefits, but also I wanted to cut calories a little bit. I think part, you know, part of what's sort of built into intermittent fasting is you're gonna reduce your calories. Mm-hmm <affirmative> if you wanna a trim, a few pounds.
[Matt McBride] 00:17:32 Um, and so I've seen a lot of people use it, uh, with success. Um, and, uh, so I'll, I'll do it. I'll do it kind of periodically. What, what I, what I typically will do is, uh, I'm doing a 16, eight I'll maybe eat during an hour window. Sometimes I'll do more like a six or seven hour window is when I'll eat. And then I'll, you know, when I'm sleeping through the morning to lunch, I'm not eating, uh, anything really just water and I'll do the, I'll do this for, uh, maybe five days and then two days off. And kind of repeat that. What, what I know Brandon, you've done a little bit of intermittent fasting. What, what have you done before?
[Brandon Worley] 00:18:14 Yeah, I actually, uh, did the, uh, 16 hours off eight hours. So it would really be, uh, I started eating around noon and, and, you know, stop eating around eight o'clock. I did it for three years straight, pretty much every day. Um, you know, one of the things that, uh, you know, I thought early on is that I'd start to lose a little bit of energy, uh, you know, without having that early morning meal before I'd work out, but I didn't have any energy deficits. I felt great. Um, I stopped, uh, the fast about, uh, a year ago, but then I've just recently started it up again. So, um, you know, for me, I, I just like to switch things up a little bit, but, you know, I've found that I've maintained weight, uh, very easily doing that. It's a very easy, you know, once you start getting into a rhythm of doing it, I've found that it's just very easy,
[Matt McBride] 00:19:02 Uh, for a lot of people that if you wanna lose a little bit of weight, I think this, this is a great weight. Like we mentioned here. Here's some of the other benefits though. Um, this is from, uh, Dr. Berg and, uh, Dr. Berg's healthy keto and intermittent fasting podcast. Um, uh, I think people talk about, you know, you're sort of giving your system a rest from eating. Um, but, uh, he also says that, uh, it promotes the growth of new neurons. So kind of expanding the capacity in the brain, uh, a toy, which AGY is, um, when your body experiences a little bit of stress, it can get rid of bad cells, bad DNA, bad mitochondria just kind of gets rid of maybe some bad things that was hanging onto. Um, and then I think, uh, uh, one of the biggest ones is insulin resistance. Have you, have you heard about that and intermittent fasting?
[Brandon Worley] 00:20:07 Yep.
[Matt McBride] 00:20:07 Yeah. So insulin is what gets all the good stuff into your, into your cells, right? It's kind of, that's how the cells get, get fed. You eat, everything gets processed, right? And, um, uh, there's a lot in our diets that spike insulin. And this is kind of one of the, the, the bigger things that, that, where my doctor convinced me of this, and she drew this up on the board and everything. Um, and so if you're, you know, constantly taking in carbs and sugars and you're spiking your insulin, now, this is ultimately what can kind of lead to diabetes and other things, but you're eating. Um, and the cells, uh, uh, you know, sort of get tired of all the insulin spikes. Mm-hmm, <affirmative> all the time. And, and they, and it creates a little bit of a resistance. So when you're eating, you're not actually getting the nourishment into the cells.
[Matt McBride] 00:21:00 And then if, if you're not getting the nourishment to the cells, the cell can be left hung. So it's, you can, you can, uh, uh, get hungrier faster because you're not getting everything into the muscles, into the, into the other, uh, cells. So that, that was kind of a, uh, a big, uh, selling point for me is, you know, you're sort of giving the, the, the break, but you're not spiking insulin all the time. Um, which, you know, kind of creates a cycle of hunger and all these other things. Um, there's a few other benefits. This is, uh, from Dr. Rhonda Patrick. Um, it's, if, you know, if you've heard of intermittent fasting, it's also called time restricted eating. Um, and, uh, what she says is, uh, that basically the body can focus on DNA and cellular repair and restoration rather than digestion. And some of the, uh, other benefits she lists as a reduced fat mass increased lean muscle mass reduced inflammation, improved heart function with age, uh, increased mitochondrial volume, uh, key tone, body production, improved repair processes, and even enhanced aerobic endurance. So, you know, I don't, you know, I think that's up to the experts to debate all of those, uh, different things, but, you know, uh, always consult a medical professional. Like I talked to my doctor about it first and, uh, she was all about it. I don't do it all the time, but I do do it, uh, periodically. So, uh, definitely something, uh, to maybe, uh, look into if you haven't, uh, tried it before,
[Brandon Worley] 00:22:57 Matt, thank you for always bringing us wonderful health tips. Uh, yeah. And I, I'm a big believer in, in the, uh, the fasting. So, uh, it's always good to switch things up, I think, and it's a fairly easy one. Um, so for everybody that watched today's episode, thank you so much. Uh, we greatly appreciate, uh, your viewership. Uh, we will provide links to everything discussed in the show notes. Uh, please feel free to hit us up with questions in the comment section. Uh, in the next episode, we'll be talking about top KPIs to measure digital patient forms. So make sure to like, and subscribe and thank you everyone for watching. We'll see you on the next
[Outro] 00:23:33 One. Thank you for watching today's episode from the getting down with digital health podcast, to learn more about mend or to access more content, please visit mend.com.
