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 joining me today is co-founder and CEO of Mend. Matt McBride, Matt, what's up, man. How are you doing?
[Matt McBride] 00:00:33 So I'm doing great, man. How are you doing today?
[Brandon Worley] 00:00:36 Doing good man, back at it again. Great to see you. Um, so today we have an action packed agenda. We are going to cover patient self scheduling, KPIs and data. We have a new ebook and on-demand webinar to check out right away. We have a rock paper, scissors competition. It's on man. Uh, and finally an informative healthcare topic meant to inspire you to be healthy. So patient self scheduling, what everyone wants to know is Matt is the no-show rate better for patient self scheduled appointments, break it down for us, man.
[Matt McBride] 00:01:18 You know, according to our data, the answer is yes. Um, in 2021 for a patient self-schedule appointments, we saw a 5% NoShow rate. So, uh, that's amazing. I mean, and, and keep in mind too, this, this is 20, that was 2021, right? I mean, telehealth usage was at an all time high, so there definitely were virtual appointments mixed in there. But you know, even if that was 10%, right, if that was 10% across in person visits and you're averaging 23%, there's still a big opportunity for improvement. Um, uh, so, uh, across mend and, and I think, you know, first, you know, these are some key KPIs that we feel everybody should track, right? I think you want to look at, uh, utilization and adoption, uh, across patient self scheduling. Look at those no-show rates for patient self-schedule appointments or even, uh, cancel rates, kept rates, things like that.
[Matt McBride] 00:02:31 Um, so across amend in, in 2021 for, uh, customers of a, of a good size that we're offering patient self scheduling, about 30%, 34% of the appointments were self scheduled versus, you know, made by phone or in office during checkout. What have you. So, uh, I think we see that trend with customers. We've sort of conditioned ourselves and people, you know, if you need a healthcare appointment, you call, right. I mean, that's pretty much what everybody has done for years and years and years. So when you offer something new, like patient self scheduling, there's an education, uh, period, right, where you have to start letting patients know they can schedule this way. So you, you might see this ramp of utilization. So while we're seeing a third of visits booked through patient self scheduling, that'll probably continue to climb. So in 2022, maybe that's in the forties, 50% as patients learn that that is an option that's available to them.
[Matt McBride] 00:03:48 Um, however, if you look at, uh, all of our appointments, cuz not every customer uses patients off scheduling only 13% of all the appointments were self scheduled, uh, across Mend. So it's it, it's not something that is widely adopted by healthcare organizations today, you know, allowing, uh, practices, allowing patients to self schedule their own appointments. And I think a big reason for that is that groups feel it's complex. You know, they're scheduling is complex. Um, Brandon, I know, I, I know, you know, you've talked to a lot of folks about patient self scheduling mm-hmm <affirmative> um, you know, how, uh, what, what, what do you tell people if they are saying, um, you know, oh, you can't, you can't do, we, we can't offer patients self scheduling. It's too complex.
[Brandon Worley] 00:04:52 Yeah. I think that, you know, you, you kind of go back to the data, you know, the data says otherwise, you know, patients love it, uh, staff, once they get used to it, find it incredibly convenient. Uh, and it actually automates a lot of the administrative tasks that a lot of the front, uh, desk staff would have to do in the scheduling staff. Uh, so once they get over that mental hurdle that it's this, um, kind of scary thing where patients just have complete, uh, ability to control their schedule and, and, you know, and schedule and cancel and all those things, uh, once they get over that, they realize that this is an incredibly powerful tool and we can set a lot of controls, uh, within the platform to, you know, kind of mitigate some of those, um, concerns that they have kind of a crawl, walk, run approach, where we can make it really tight where the agent, uh, where the organization can really have a lot of, um, uh, input and action into how much control the patient has, or they can, you know, make it wide open once they get more comfortable.
[Brandon Worley] 00:05:53 But I will tell you, we have more and more health systems that are coming through, uh, as of late, uh, interested in adding, uh, patient self scheduling. Um, and when you ask 'em, what's driving this it's, well, the competitor health system down the street <laugh> offers it. And so, you know, we need to offer it as well. So, um, it is a growing trend and, you know, the data just shows that if you wanna decrease, uh, your NoShow rate and increase patient experience and engagement offering, uh, patient self scheduled visits is, is, you know, where you need to go.
[Matt McBride] 00:06:31 Yeah. And I mean, whether it's insurance, the location, the availability, the complexity of the visit, all of these things can be taken into account and, but still made very simple, very user friendly. So, um, I, I think, uh, where maybe you thought it wasn't possible before, uh, it definitely becomes, uh, possible and, uh, it's something that consumers want, but one of the, the, uh, next areas that we wanted to look at, um, patient self scheduling doesn't have to be new appointments. It could be just giving people the ability to cancel and reschedule. And, uh, you know, that that's an option within our system. You don't have to do full blown patient scheduling. Maybe this is a place to, to start and, uh, gain some experience with it. And then I think you want to track all of the change reasons. If somebody does want to change, what are those reasons?
[Matt McBride] 00:07:30 And I think if you look at this 64%, there's some sort of conflict, is what we're seeing. Cuz we will track the change reasons for customers and you've got 95% saying personal reason, which is still sort of a conflict, right? So, so, so now you're at about 75% of all change reasons are because of a conflict, right? And uh, I think this is where no-shows come from, right? These are the people, these, these are from people that are canceling or rescheduling, right? The bulk of the changes to an appointment are because of a conflict, really three, three fourth, right? 75%. If you don't make it easy and you have to call and maybe somebody doesn't answer, you're not open or all of those things. That's where I think a lot of the no-shows come from. So I think this also plays a big role in the NoShow rates around patient selfs scheduling because yeah, you, you're offering patients off scheduling for new appointments, but then you can also include the ability to cancel reschedule. So, you know, you can, you, you end up realizing those lower no-show rates overall because you've just made it effortless for people to make a change and tell you that they're not coming or they're not able to come. They can clear that off the schedule that can be replaced with somebody who is actually going to attend. So, um, that's another key a piece here and then,
[Brandon Worley] 00:09:09 And just one thing to that and, and it is, it's so simple, you know, a patient can just go right on their smartphone, sitting on an airplane before their flight takes off, realizes they're gonna miss their appointment and just go reschedule it right on their own provider. Doesn't have to do anything. You don't have to sync up, you know, make a phone call, wait for them to call you back, be on hold. It's all just, uh, just very simple and modern, uh, the way we do things in, in almost every other industry. So, uh, ease of use is key.
[Matt McBride] 00:09:38 Yeah. So we've got a little demo playing just to show, you know, what, where's this data coming from? What does this thing even look like? And, where's the data coming from? So, um, you know, we want to collect some basic demographic information and then we get into the, uh, actual, uh, decision tree and then, you know, routing to, uh, the right location, uh, um, uh, the right provider. You can, we can filter by age insurance, all sorts of different, you know, complexity, all sorts of different, uh, things can be taken into account. Um, and then it can be completely automated. Right? So I, I think, you know, the, if, if you're only depending on how, uh, uh, available it, it is to schedule an appointment by phone, right. You know, say you were doing maybe eight to six and, uh, but there's a lunch break in there. You're really only able to accept business, you know, maybe 35, 40% of, of the given time in a week, right? Where patient selfs scheduling or the ability to make modifications. Now software can be working for you 24 7, 365. You can accept business 24, 7, 365. Um, and giving people these modern conveniences that they want. So there's just, there, there's a, there's a lot of benefits. And I think where people thought that just can't be done, it's too complex. You have to have a person to do. It is just not the case anymore to
[Brandon Worley] 00:11:13 Get into it even more. Uh, we have a new ebook, an on-demand webinar covering the KPIs discussed today, and a lot more, uh, we have top 12 telehealth and digital patient engagement KPIs. Every healthcare tech leader must have Matt. How can folks sign up for
[Matt McBride] 00:11:29 That on mend.com? We've got lots of on demand content where we're just trying to put helpful insights out there. So on mend.com in the resources section, eBooks and webinars. So here's the ebook, uh, the 12 KPIs. And then we have all the data we're sharing, all of our data to be used as a benchmark. We've got an on-demand webinar, uh, taking you through, uh, all the KPIs and, uh, our own data across millions and millions of patients and appointments. So you'd know if, if you are, uh, you know, doing really well or, or maybe need, uh, you know, there's some room for improvement. So, um, lots of different resources and content that we're putting out to, uh, help folks, uh, help more people. I
[Brandon Worley] 00:12:18 Think we know what time it is. It's competition time.
[Matt McBride] 00:12:21 I mean, this is your time. I mean, you know, the tic-tac toe. We know how that went, man. I mean like, you know,
[Brandon Worley] 00:12:32 Paper, rock scissors, man. It's my jam.
[Matt McBride] 00:12:35 I'm
Speaker 4 00:12:36 Ready when you are.
[Matt McBride] 00:12:38 So, uh, we do best outta five. Best fun. Are you going old school? Rock paper, scissor shoot. Is that, what we are doing?
[Brandon Worley] 00:12:49 Rock paper, scissor shoot.
[Matt McBride] 00:12:51 All right. And it's gotta be, it's gotta be in the camera. So
Speaker 4 00:12:55 Rock paper, scissor shoot.
[Matt McBride] 00:12:59 Oh, I got one
Speaker 4 00:13:04 Paper scissors, shoot
[Matt McBride] 00:13:08 1, 1, 1, 1, right?
[Brandon Worley] 00:13:11 Yep. One,
[Matt McBride] 00:13:12 One then let's just we'll we'll we'll best outta three. Next one.
[Brandon Worley] 00:13:17 Next one
[Matt McBride] 00:13:17 Wins. Wins it all.
Speaker 4 00:13:20 Rock paper scissors, shoot. Boom.
[Matt McBride] 00:13:26 I mean, I was trying, but I, you know, I, I, I wasn't gonna be mad if you won cuz you know, you were due. So
[Brandon Worley] 00:13:33 Yeah, I have a, I have a tall hill to climb to catch up.
[Matt McBride] 00:13:36 <laugh> so
[Brandon Worley] 00:13:38 Always a great time. Matt, having you on always look forward to having these contests, um, everyone, uh, thank you guys so much, uh, for, for paying attention. Uh, and watching this episode now comes to the part where Matt has a health tip for you. Um, these tips are always meant to inspire you to be as healthy as you can be. So Matt, what do you have for us today?
[Matt McBride] 00:14:00 Yeah, well, the, the topic for this episode is really that combination of, of exercise and, and mental health and uh, the little, a bit of research, uh, in the journal of affective disorders. Uh, this was a study exercise as a treatment for depression, a meta-analysis by Anders Holand. So a meta-analysis is taking all these different studies that folks have done in this area could be, you know, hundreds of different studies combine them into one meta analysis. Because usually one study isn't enough, right? The scientific method to do one study will somebody else be able to repeat that, get similar results so on and so forth. So then all these people look at a, at a given area and then you've got a meta analysis such as sort of the analysis of it all. And here's some of the interesting conclusions, physical exercise is an effective intervention for depression.
[Matt McBride] 00:15:03 It also could be a viable adjunct treatment in combination with antidepressants. Some of the political studies found exercise to be on par with antidepressants. So I think, um, I would say first, you know, look where there's, uh, you always wanna consult a medical professional, right? And we're not giving anybody any medical advice. And there, I think there are certain cases where, you know, maybe exercise would not be effective at all given, you know, the severity and what's going on. So, but I, I just, I think there are very, a few downsides to it. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and it may help. Right. Um, if anything, I think, you know, there's, you know, there's confidence, boosters from it, maybe being, feeling a little healthier, feeling, a little fitter. Um, and so there, there's definitely a lot of benefits. I think also, you know, just to put some context around the exercise, right?
[Matt McBride] 00:16:07 Like you don't do this, you don't have to be out there, you know, CrossFit competing in the games, right. Exercise could be, you know, a, a, a long walk mm-hmm <affirmative>, you know, depending on your level of fitness that may get your heart rate up to a point that, you know, you're, you're burning a lot of calories and, and actually, uh, getting a decent, uh, workout in or a light run or something that you enjoy doing, playing a sport. It doesn't have to be this intense, uh, you know, thing to, to get the benefits. So, um, uh, uh, yeah, I think it's just one of many, many, uh, benefits of exercise. And it just seemed, you know, we were, we were given this body right. That's able to move. I think, you know, it wants to move, doesn't wanna be, uh, just sitting all day long. So, um, a lot of, uh, uh, a lot of, lot of benefits and, and, uh, I thought that was interesting that it was found to be, um, you know, as effective or almost as effective as antidepressants.
[Brandon Worley] 00:17:13 Yeah. That's the first I've heard of that. I'm not surprised. Um, cause I certainly know how it makes me feel. Um, so, uh, Matt, thank you so much for sharing that. I know you and I are big proponents of exercise and physical fitness and uh, at any level, uh, and like you said, it could be just a walk couple times, few times a week and you know, you're doing benefit for yourself. So, and also gives you opportunities to get outdoors, uh, depending on what type of exercise you wanna do. So, um, well everyone, thank you again so much, uh, for tuning into this episode of getting down with digital health, um, we will provide links to everything discussed in the show notes. Please feel free to hit us up with any questions in the comment section in the next episode, Mend has by far the most exciting vision for the future of telehealth and patient engagement. And we will be sharing that with you all, make sure to like and subscribe and thank you everybody very much for watching. Have a great rest of your day.
[Outro] 00:18:11 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.
