Thousands of healthcare providers trust PatientPop to manage each step of practice growth, from the moment patients find them online to post-visit feedback. Today, we hear from customer Luke Overcash, Women’s Health Institute office manager.
The Women’s Health Institute is a two-provider OB-GYN practice in Peoria, Ill. The practice is a true family business: Overcash works with his father, Dr. Larry Overcash, as well as his wife, Nurse Practitioner Erin Overcash. In this video, PatientPop representative Lisa Christy asks Overcash about his experiences and successes with PatientPop. Watch the video for conversation highlights, or see more of their conversation in the below transcript.
Lisa Christy: Thank you so much for taking this time. We really, really appreciate it. The Women’s Health Institute has been a customer with PatientPop for a while now, and you seem to be having really great success with the solution. How long has the practice been open?
Luke Overcash: Since 1986.
Christy: Wow. Has it been in the same location the whole time?
Overcash: We’ve been at several locations. We moved to the current location in 2009.
Christy: How long have you been working with the practice?
Overcash: This is my tenth year.
Christy: Can you tell me about what the staff looks like?
Overcash: Yes, we’re a family practice. Dr. Overcash is actually my father, and Erin, our nurse practitioner, is my wife. We’re all in the family. My dad’s sister has been his nurse for 30 years, and just recently retired this past year. We have another nurse, a couple office assistants, and front office staff. We’re a pretty small practice overall, but a very busy practice. We’ve been in practice, like I said earlier, for 32 years, and have delivered over 12,000 babies. We’re pretty busy.
Christy: Wow. What’s it like working with your family so closely?
Overcash: It’s great. I get to drive to work every day with my wife, so we have good conversation. Plus, I get to see my father every day, so that’s a lot of fun.
Christy: What kind of competition has the practice faced ever since opening in 1986, and then more recently with the surge of people looking for doctors on the internet?
Overcash: It’s very stiff competition in the Peoria area. A lot of practitioners have recently retired, so we have noticed a big increase in patients lately. We had five OBs retire in the last two years, so it’s changed the game a little bit. There’s a couple of practices that are larger, they have 10 providers or more, so it’s different with that.
We pride ourselves in that we have one provider that does all of our delivering of the babies. A lot of women really like that, knowing you’re going to the same person the whole time and having them deliver. It’s nice for that.
Christy: Have you gotten any patients from those larger practices who said, “I didn’t like going to those practices because there were multiple providers?”
Overcash: Yes, we did notice a lot of the transfer patients were on that basis, and they wanted to have a consistent provider every time to know and understand what’s going on with them. They just felt uncomfortable going to the 15 OB appointments that they go to throughout pregnancy and seeing somebody different each time. It was not as reassuring to them.
Then coming closer to the delivery, saying, “Well, if you go into labor on Monday, it’s this provider, if it’s Tuesday, Wednesday it’s this provider,” just made them a little unsettled and uneasy.
Christy: Right, I can imagine that. You guys have a lot going for you to distinguish yourself from the competition. You are a family practice, which is just wonderful, and you also have this single provider. What else separates you from the competition?
Overcash: I think just the overall experience. There’s a lot of newer providers in the area. I think that’s one thing that differentiates us.
Christy: How did you attract patients prior to coming to work with PatientPop?
Overcash: Really, we’ve always been a word of mouth. We’re not big advertisers, we don’t even have our listing in the phone book. Obviously, that’s over now, so no one uses that.
Really I’m a technology guy, so when I came on the practice 10 years ago, I’ve been trying to gradually increase our technology. I brought in electronic medical record systems, just as much stuff as we can do to digitize.
We did try a few other providers. We tried ZocDoc was another online scheduling, and I felt like we did not have much control over that. Basically, patients could book whenever, and it really was difficult. It was at the beginning of their process, but it was not compatible with us.
Lastly, we wanted to update our website, give a fresh look, and athenahealth highly recommended you guys. We looked into that. Alex has been my representative, and awesome throughout the process, great to work with, very easy, and it’s a great process.
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Christy: Great. You said you found out about PatientPop through athenahealth?
Overcash: Yes, I did. They have a marketplace with all kinds of providers that specialize in electronic medical record systems, and you’re one of their focus groups they put on there.
Christy: What was it about PatientPop that you decided, “This is the way I want to go”?
Overcash: Well, just looking at other websites you had done, how visually appealing and simplistic it is for patients to just go get all the information that they need. If they want to book an appointment, it’s convenient, very visual. Pops up, you click on the provider, see their times that are available, and can get in as soon as possible. Patients really appreciate that. We are a busy practice, we’re booking two months out.
When the openings do happen, it’s great that they have the opportunity to see those in live-time, and get a chance to maybe sneak in there for something.
Christy: How would you describe the PatientPop implementation process? When you guys first came onboard with us, what was that like?
Overcash: It was extremely easy. We referenced some other sites you had previously built. I told them what I liked, what I didn’t like, gave them all of our patient forms that we work with now. The process was extremely smooth and easy, and we couldn’t be happier.
Christy: We do have some old screenshots of your old website, and then obviously I can access your new website. It seems like PatientPop was really able to carry the brand that you guys had established for yourselves into the new website. Would you say that that’s accurate?
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Overcash: Yes, very much so.
Christy: How did patients react when you launched your new PatientPop website with the online scheduling and the new design?
Overcash: The biggest thing that I’ve noticed is the increased size, the younger population, 35 and under, really tend to go to that. They like the capability of scheduling online at their convenience.
Christy: About how long after you were working with PatientPop would you say you started seeing results?
Overcash: Right away. It made a big difference right off the bat. Our web traffic has increased at a ton, patients comment all the time about how beautiful the site is and how easy to navigate it is.
Christy: Great. So, some of the results you guys were seeing was increased website traffic, increased patients, and appointments.
Overcash: Correct.
Christy: What changes have you noticed in the reputation of Women’s Health Institute since working with PatientPop?
Overcash: Sure, that’s probably the largest thing we’ve noticed with. You can have a Google page and try to talk as much as you want for people to go leave reviews, but PatientPop makes it simple. As soon as the patient leaves their appointment, they get that review request. You can look at our numbers, the reviews are outstanding. It’s very convenient, puts right on Google for us.
Every time I get a new patient calling, they say, “Your practice is really highly recommended. We look at those reviews, and we’re amazed with how good your reviews are.”
Christy: Right. You guys have, I think, more than a thousand reviews, and most of them are positive.
Overcash: I know. That’s good.
Christy: We mentioned that you guys work with athenahealth. athenahealth is your EMR. Is athenahealth integrated with PatientPop as your partners?
Overcash: Yes. Whenever our schedule changes, PatientPop can go directly to our athena calendar and reflect that on our website.
Christy: Would you say that integration is a big benefit of PatientPop?
Overcash: It is nice. It does help the front staff, so you can send text reminders and the reviews are, in my opinion, the very best thing that comes off of it. It’s very easy, the patient has complete control. Entering their demographic information, it populates right into athena for them. So when it is a new patient, half the work is already done for them.
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Christy: Great, great. You have been a PatientPop customer for coming on two years now, I believe. What would you say is the absolute best thing about working with us?
Overcash: Well, Alex is my rep. He is awesome. As soon as I text him, email him, whatever, he’s back to me right off the bat. Very accommodating with working with, and it’s just been a smooth process.
Christy: Great. Alex is your customer success manager, correct?
Overcash: Correct, yes.
Christy: So you actually really love the personal aspect of it?
Overcash: I do, yes. It makes it way easier.
Christy: Great. I’m excited to give him that feedback. What would be something that you would tell other people who might be hesitant to give PatientPop a try?
Overcash: Well, if you’re in the market to update your website, get a lot of reviews, increase your patient appointments that are on there, I mean, it’s a great solution, has a lot of features, and very reasonable. We’ve been really happy with it.
