Ep. 164: Scaling Urgent Care Success with Metrics & Team Dynamics - Interview with April Gillam from Solv. Health

PCMP (00:00)
What is up Walkins Welcome fam. We are kicking off the new year 2025. I'm so excited about our guests today, but as always, I have to tell you, we're here to help you get more patients, get repeat visits, deliver better care and scale your business. Today's going to be a little bit about scale. And we have the industry's best friend, April, us today. I'll let you do it. We love her. And this is, I think podcast number three. You're the first person I think who's made it to number three. Yeah, probably.

But we'll get to that in a minute, but everybody knows April, but do a brief introduction. Let's just get right into the conversation. brief. April Galen with Solve. Her official title is Head of Industry Strategy and Consulting. We call her the face of Solve. So we're glad to have April back on with us today. And it's January. So like it's all new stuff. And we're going to be deep diving into like, it's the busy season for the urgent care. And we need to identify those metrics. But April, so good to have you on today.

April Gillam (00:55)
Thank you. And I think I'm going to change my title to your head best friend of the urge.

PCMP (00:58)
Okay.

At least I can identify what that means. Quick story. We're at the last UCA event and this is the second time that we have attended as a company. Certainly looking forward to this year's event, but we're standing there. We're in our booth and I'm telling you from like three aisles back across the room, April's like, what's up?

April Gillam (01:05)
Yeah, totally. I can't do.

PCMP (01:27)
Nick, what's up? Patient care marketing. Like just going nuts. then every bit like, tell me I'm wrong. April, our booth was the Habinim booth. And I don't even know why. Just like everybody was coming there and eating, hanging out, talking, hiding. So April, you have a quick story that I have to ask being a, a, a PK. And I'll let you explain what that is, but being a PK, you got to give me a PK story. Shoot.

April Gillam (01:52)
Yes,

so I need to back us up for a second and say, well, my Southern accent is strong today. And it may be because...

PCMP (01:58)
Bring it. We are Birmingham.

If you say dollars, we're going to know better.

April Gillam (02:05)
Yes, well, and it could be because I'm going back to my childhood and going back to my roots. Both of my parents are doctors. My mom is a doctor of medicine and my dad is a doctor of theology. He is a pastor. so PK means pastor's kid. so, you know, pastor's kids, much like every human on this earth, we are not perfect.

But every once in while we get this wild hair in us that says, do something bad in this church right now. And so one of my favorite bad pastor's kid or bad PK memories is this one. We were going to my cousin's wedding and preparing for her wedding in this small Baptist church in East Texas, just very, very small. And my dad was of course doing the wedding and

We were there all day and my brother was 13 and I was probably about eight and I was hiding in the baptistry and my brother got the microphone and we waited until my mom came in hiding in the baptistry and he goes, Linda, this is God. And my mom fell to the floor thinking it was God. And I'll probably be pulled aside one day when I get there.

PCMP (03:17)
That's so good.

April Gillam (03:26)
to have a talking to about that.

PCMP (03:28)
Well, you

know, those highlight reels we'll get right after we enter the pearly gates are going to be fun, right? Cause you get to see all of it, the good and the bad. I forgot about that one. man. I can see it now. I honestly feel like Jesus is going be over there elbow and me going to, that was a good one. I approve that one. That's right. And if you don't, I, whatever April, that's a good story. I've got a lot of friends that are PKs and, and you're one of the top.

That's for sure. I love it. All right. So we have a topic today we're going to dig into. Obviously we're going to be talking about respiratory and the season that all of our urgent cares find themselves in right now, be in January. But more importantly, we're going to be talking about scale and how some things can fall apart during scale. And that being such a hot button for this podcast, like it's almost like a core value of the podcast. I don't want to ask you the question. Why don't you lay up what's on your mind about this? And then we'll go deep from there. I do have questions, but I want to start with just lay it up for us.

April Gillam (04:22)
Yeah, for sure. Well, you know, as a shocker for you and for me, we actually did not record this today. It is sometime in December right now. so, you know,

respiratory season probably has ramped a little bit more in my crystal ball of a mind because we were having a little bit of a later respiratory season. So imagining you in the future right now in January, you might be having a little bit more intensity than we are having right now because sometimes respiratory season hits more intensely in late January and February. But what happens during these moments of respiratory season is it highlights pain points in our operational

flow and our patient experiences and our employee experiences, which downstream hit our bottom line. And we actually sometimes hit like experience these things in our revenue, even into the summer. And then it piles and piles and piles and it feels hard to recover from. And so we start to experience things like patient attrition, like employee attrition, and it feels hard to get from out under.

And so how do we measure these things? And furthermore, how do we actually empower our people to care about the metrics that matter and not feel like they are being beaten overhead with these metrics? So it feels like a carrot instead of a stick. And like, how do we explain that to them in a way that makes sense at their level and their role? And they understand the value behind those metrics. And so all of those layers,

are sometimes overwhelming to untangle. I remember when I first came into the urgent care business and experienced my first really intense flu season, the volumes were exciting, but then all the things that went with the volume was a lot. And so it took me a few years to understand what I should focus on, that every fire is not a raging fire. And sometimes one of my favorite podcasts is

let small fires burn, that sometimes that the level of urgency that one person has is not the level of urgency that I have. So that was a lot that I said at once and we'll untangle that, but I really want to go through what really matters and what we should be focused on, especially when we talked about an end-to-end patient experience and what is going to trickle down to great outcomes for the patient.

PCMP (06:31)
That's good.

April Gillam (06:58)
for your employees and ultimately for your business and your revenue outcomes because no margin, no mission. You can't continue to grow patient access, grow your employee experiences and grow your revenue without.

PCMP (07:14)
Well, know, it's timing on this too. So back right before Christmas, we released an episode about understanding your 2025, what you want to focus on, the goal setting. If you didn't do that, let all this exposure happen, you'll find out real quick what your goals should be setting on and how to fix your processes. Because your processes and your people for 40 patients a day probably doesn't look the same at 80 patients per day. It's a completely different animal. We recognize that even from our own agency, like where we...

what it takes to make $500,000 a year as an agency versus a million is quite a bit different. And then you'll find out real quick how good or bad your process is and every single hole that's inside of it. Well, they call it refined by fire, don't they? I used to have a boss and if you've been spent any time in the corporate world, I know you have April, you'll hear the phrase growth solves everything. You'll just hear that phrase because they're like just more revenue, more revenue.

April Gillam (07:56)
Mm-hmm, exactly.

They do. They do.

PCMP (08:13)
And it's been my experience that growth exposes everything. That's what it... yeah. So let's build on that a little bit. There's some measurables that you were talking about. What are, just to set everything up, what are the measurables that we're going to be talking about on this episode?

April Gillam (08:16)
It does.

See you.

Yeah. and so, you know, the, the top things that I really, really focus on are of course your average daily volume at a per site level. and your door to door times nested under that will go into every component that goes under that. you know, a lot of people just focus on wait times, but your total capacity of being able to see your max volume daily is affected by your door to door times. You could have a great wait time, but.

a horrible door-to-door time. So that's why we look mainly at door-to-door times. And then the last one is satisfaction. So you can look at both your NPS and your online satisfaction. I know that most health system folks just look at NPS, but the people who are seeking same day, next day care, they're looking at online reviews. They can't see your NPS. They're like, NPS who? I don't know her.

PCMP (09:22)
Big time. Yeah, exactly.

April Gillam (09:26)
I know Google reviews and so the, yeah, or Yelp. yeah, I think Yelp is the pirates of the internet. If I am a mom, I am going to Google and I'm looking to the quantity and quality of your reviews. And also that is extremely additive to your SEO. And I know that Yelp is additive to your SEO too and has all their connections. But Yelp doesn't do.

PCMP (09:26)
Yeah, or yell. Yeah, ho yelp. That's another story.

April Gillam (09:54)
Or Yelp does all their games with like, pay us, or we're going to derank you.

PCMP (09:59)
Yelp is the bathroom

wall of the internet. It is. And it's one of those, and we tell people all the time, because we experienced it with our own clients. So if you start paying for Yelp, great. If you stop paying for Yelp, they will flip your profile. You know, they even don't even hide it anymore. April, I was turning it off. We had a, we had a location. They decided to say, Hey, this location isn't one that we want to pursue anymore. Go in, turn off all of our stuff. So we went in and

April Gillam (10:18)
No!

PCMP (10:27)
This is the first time I think I've turned off the Yelp paid portion of it if I've started it, right? And it just said, this is what your reviews are going to look like now once you turn it off. It's even telling you. they just, I couldn't believe it. go from like, at all my five stars up top. Now my one stars are up top. And that's exactly what And that's all I am now to Yelp as a one star.

That's exactly it. They put it. They put it. almost wanted, should have screen shot. This is true. It's like, here's what you look like when you cancel. This is what you're going to look like. And I'm like, they're not even trying to hide it. admit it. Like they're manipulating it. goodness. Sorry. I don't mean to get out there. That is not the net promoter score you're looking for. No.

April Gillam (11:00)
the last.

No,

the last time I canceled one was like 2016, so clearly it did not have that experience.

PCMP (11:10)
Yeah, that was back

before I got sold. sure I'm to send that because I think you can get all the way up to the cancellation. Are you sure? Because we're about to screw your business. Like this is warning. I'll screenshot that and send it to you, April, because it's a hoot. like, I can't even imagine if Google did that. Game changing.

April Gillam (11:19)
you

It's like a

sporned lover or something like that. It's so horrible. Anyways, all that to say, your core consumer can see your reviews. And so that's what they're deciding on. And a high quantity and quality of reviews, what we see it solve is that our most successful partners in terms of volume, they have thousands of five-star reviews.

and they have over 4.5 stars on average. And it really is a validator of how much traffic they're getting from online sources. And then that's re-looping from those reviews because when you go to a GMB profile, you see the reviews and then you see that booking button right underneath it.

So there is psychology and having high ranking, having your reviews and being able to easy book right underneath it. So it's all looped together there. And so those are the things that I'm looking at is like volume.

your door-to-door times, and then also your satisfaction. Yes, NPS is important because health systems measure it, and a lot of even payers measure that, and you being able to negotiate, but your consumers that affect your volume are looking online at your satisfaction ratings. So those are the core.

And then as we get into the actual clinic experience, this is where I see, I see things actually start to break down. And I've been doing this world tour of clinics and there are just things that happen in clinics that you cannot see on spreadsheets and dashboards. And so this is where I'm going to do the huge call to action of urgent care leaders. Get out of the boardrooms, get out of the decks, get all the sheets.

get your boots into the clinics because you cannot see, like you just can't see. And so what I encourage you to measure is in these increments. So from the time that a patient physically arrives, from here to the time that they are ready to be called back, from the time that they are ready to be called back to the time that they hit the exam.

Okay, that is their total wait time. But those two increments and breaking them up is important because from the time that they are here to the time that they are ready, that is actually like what the receptionist should be held accountable to, right? Because even if the patient is doing a digital paperwork and da, da, da, the receptionist should have like sight line on all of that.

But the time that the patient is ready to the time that they are called back, that is your tech or your MA or whoever is responsible for calling them back. That's their metric to be watching, right? Because if it's their responsibility to have three rooms filled for the provider or what have you, whatever your clinic's metric is, they should be watching and calling back. That is actually the key area of the clinic that I see a gap in is that clinics are

just not calling patients back and or doing it very, very slow. They're keeping one exam room filled at a time per provider. And so that's where clinics are not turning a lot. Then as we get back to the back, I actually want to pause there and see if you have any feedback on that.

PCMP (14:59)
I've got lots of feedback. One of them is very important, which is your call to action. Right. And so I remember the quick story and then we'll keep going. I used to work for Costco and I think everybody here has heard of Costco. Believe it or not, I had the opportunity to meet Jim Sinegal, who at the time was the owner and CEO of Costco. And the reason I bring this story up is because when he came to one of the stores to visit, everybody would be on their

April Gillam (15:08)
Mm-hmm.

you

PCMP (15:26)
best P's and Q's, everything would be buttoned up, everything would look immaculate, and he would never get the real picture. And so what I wanted to follow up with your comment on get out of the boardroom and get into the clinics, don't tell them you're coming. Or you're like the undercover boss, secret shopper, right? Or be a guest, be a visitor, right? Especially if you start getting up into the multiples of clinics, they may not even know who you are.

April Gillam (15:33)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

PCMP (15:55)
And if that's

the case, you can get a real view of what it's like to go through that clinic, like a secret shopper almost. And I'm not telling you to be shady. I'm not telling you, like there's times for you to go in and build your team up. But there's also times where you want to go in and see what that clinic looks like. So I wanted to throw that in as a caveat to what you're saying, because I agree with you, but if you do it the wrong way, you're going to just get a buttoned up clinic. That's not telling you the truth. Like the food inspector showing up and like, we knew you were coming. I want to know that guy showing up.

April Gillam (16:08)
Yeah, absolutely.

you

You know, one of the executives I was with recently said that to me. He said, we have so many clinics now, they don't know who I am. And that's part like that's good and bad because I'll see if they don't greet me. I'll see how long it takes to say something to me, things like that. So it is really interesting to actually be boots on the ground and get into your clinics. You know, I think that the other behavior that is really important

is how your team works together. There is a dynamic that happens sometimes in clinics, especially ones who don't have this tight team behavior, where it is assumed that the provider or the physician on site is the boss that day. And absolutely, they dictate patient care, but they should not have the ability to close the clinic early.

to turn away patients who they don't want to see, who, you know, we actually do have that scope of services, to say, I'm not going to fill more than two or three rooms at a time because I say so. And so the dynamic that I always encourage is that if you are a tech or an MA or a nurse and a provider is trying to do those things, you say, hey,

My responsibility to this company and the patients we see today is to keep three rooms filled unless we have a suspected TB patient or a suspected scabies patient, something that is like a big deal, right? It's part of clinic protocol. And my commitment to you is that I'm going to prepare patients and documentation the best possible so that you can do your best work. What I will not do is break company policy.

And like if they have that interaction with you. But that provider is not the, typically is not the techs or the clinical support staff's boss. And so having that really great rapport between the two of them and having the expectations about roles and responsibilities and the metrics that they are measured to is important. And so for that provider to know, I'm held to this door to door time.

I am held to keeping two or three rooms turned at a time. I cannot close the clinic early, those types of things. And at the same time, I know that I'm supported with the tools, the staffing, the resources to do my best work and not feel like I'm letting patient safety slip is really important.

PCMP (19:10)
So I'm curious, have you seen ways to help motivate people to do these things? Because naturally what's happening is like, there's a disconnect of why they're having to do it versus they're wanting to actually do it. We were having a discussion on interview the other day where people don't like the word training, they like the word education when it comes to adjustment and feedback and to improve a provider. But from what you've seen, what is the...

April Gillam (19:24)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

PCMP (19:39)
Yeah, okay, I'll buy into this now sorry for making those mistakes. Or is it just like, no, you have to do this or we're gonna let you go? Like where do you think there's a line there? Or does it? Where do you think?

April Gillam (19:49)
Yeah, I think, and I have even grown a lot of this myself. I think that there is a certain rigidity to healthcare communications a lot of times where it's, know, we have implemented this new policy and procedure. Please confirm that you have read this, you know, da, da, da, da, or this is your first warning. If you do this again, it will result in, you know,

PCMP (20:17)
Gotta get that pimp in.

April Gillam (20:19)
up to like termination. And so there is this environment of I'm going to tell you, I'm not going to coach you. And that

Can I cuss a little here? That is crappy. Like that is not how.

PCMP (20:37)
That is not custom.

That's not custom. we're okay. We're okay with that. I feel like I know where you're going with that though.

April Gillam (20:41)
Like I've reeled it in a little bit. is not,

yeah, that is not a good feeling like at all, you know? And so I think when the pandemic hit and so an insult hit injury of like, I'm being communicated this way. There is this huge global crisis. I'm working in it in uncertain conditions. And then people are barking at me all the time and giving me new news all the time in a way that's like,

this is new news. And if you don't follow this new protocol, you're going to be fired, but you're helping all the people in the universe. It felt bad. And so we have to change how we communicate with people, but also we have to give them more tools to be able to communicate with each other. And that is like the skills that we just haven't given these people like at all.

you know, is how to communicate with each other in tough situations, how to communicate with patients in tough situations. And that is like what we have to heal from the inside out.

PCMP (21:46)
We call it soft skills, I guess in the urgent care space, it would be called bedside manner. But, you know, we talk about this a lot when we're doing non-interview podcasts where we're just, you know, leadership and coaching and teaching and training. A lot of that can be done. So specifically talking to scale. You don't have the ability as a leader to go in and have those soft type of conversations that aren't going to come across the wrong way.

April Gillam (21:48)
me.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

PCMP (22:14)
If you're not spending time in those clinics making positive deposits. The deposit side is the biggest deal because why am I listening to you when I've never heard from you at all? I've never seen you admit a problem or a mistake that you had to correct yourself. Like there's a lot of barriers and walls that go up and it makes it harder for me to say, okay, I'll listen and actually understand what you're trying to tell me.

April Gillam (22:41)
Yeah, yeah. my eyes were open to that when I was working at Urgent Care for Kids and I realized what privilege I had to have a dad like I have who always spoke to me like I was worthy. man, I think I might have a tear coming.

PCMP (23:01)
You are worthy, We can keep going with that. We can have a

different sesh if you want.

April Gillam (23:07)
And I led so many people who never had parents who treated them like they were worthy. And so just having like just having the tone and the conversations with them, like like they are worthy, like almost at first they would be suspicious of that. And then like the walls would come down and then it would affect how they talked to patients and other people, you know, and like you have to be present.

for you to have that impact on people, you know? You have to look them in the eyes and really care for them to let down those walls and for them to start to have that effect on other people. And so that's a whole cultural thing you have to do. You have to care for other people to care.

And that does affect your satisfaction and your door-to-door times and all of those things, you know?

PCMP (24:08)
So like I really, we may even shift gears here because you're bringing it. You're bringing out passion points now of things that I think could genuinely help clinics, especially if we're going to start talking at scale. Right. So you're talking about these measurables. You're talking about getting boots on the ground. You're talking about the human interaction bridging the gap between data and humanity. Right. So coming in, you have to make corrections. It seems to me that if you're leading your organization well,

April, would it just make sense to have the right leadership in place that are there making those positive deposits so that they can speak truth to them and say, listen, you're just going to have to do better here because I built so much goodwill. I'm able to just shoot you straight. And then as a leader of an organization, let's say that you're a fast paced and you have a hundred clinics, right? Or a hundred plus clinics, right? If you're listening fast paced, I didn't mean to give you a heart attack just now. Like last time I thought to them, he looked like he was about to kill somebody. So anyway, where

April Gillam (25:03)
So...

PCMP (25:08)
his only goal as a leader or her only goal as a leader, whoever it is going into that clinic, if you've put the proper leadership in place, you're there to build up and love on that team, not to go in there and burn the place down. You have leadership in place for that. You should be boots on the ground, building your team up for a positive experience and giving them purpose in what they're doing on a daily basis. Now that is my opinion and I get that, but I think I'm right. April?

April Gillam (25:35)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Well, and I like, when I expand on that, so like even if we were to take it back into the clinic, like, so we stopped at taking them back to the exam. one of the things that I've always struggled with is, you know, providers pushed back a lot of times at seeing more patients. and you know, there is a capacity that a provider can't see more patients, but I have a, I'll use this example. A lot of providers push back at bringing their

laptop into the exam room because they think it will take away from that bedside manner. What it really takes away from is door-to-door time and it takes away from accuracy and efficiency because if you're writing on a piece of paper

PCMP (26:14)
I get that. I get that.

April Gillam (26:26)
and taking it outside, then well, first of all, we are exposing PHI. We're reducing accuracy because you might make an error. And there are certainly ways, especially in the age of AI with voice AI, all the things for us to have bedside manner, even when typing. And so it's really not an excuse and it really increases door to door time.

And so when we have that conversation with a physician or advanced practitioner employee, talking to them on their level in a value framework of, for you to do this, it provides value to the patient in this way. It provides value to you as the provider in this way. You're going to have less pajama time.

You're going be more efficient. You are going to be more accurate. And it's going to provide value to the business in this way. You know, we're going to be able to have our charts close on time and be billed on time. We're not going to send you back inaccurate charts for you to clean up, you know, all of the things. And of course that's going to have, you know, business impact in our revenue and we're going to be able to grow more. And so that value framework of this is the why instead of the tell is

very impactful and getting people to understand the business.

PCMP (27:50)
You have to treat it like a business. is retail healthcare. Picking and choosing whether or not you're going to have one room filled or three rooms filled or whatever. They're coming in as a patient expecting speed. April, you've been in this game longer than I have. It's 45 minutes door to door. That is the goal, right?

April Gillam (27:53)
Mm-hmm.

And I would say the best in class, the best of the best, some of them do it in 35 or less.

PCMP (28:20)
No, the ones who are doing it in 35 or less are using online schedulers like Solve who pre-position that when they walk through the door, they check in and their name, they already have their chart filled out. Then they go right back to an exam room and that's where they wait. They're not waiting in the hallway. And then somebody's come in and saying, Hey, somebody's going to be with you in just a minute. Scan this QR code. you know, just, I'm just like those streamlined processes. And they've built in a scribe functionality where they can come in and have a human conversation with you while your notes are taking themselves.

April Gillam (28:34)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

PCMP (28:50)
That thinking

Harry Potter, the little pin. You know I'm talking about? Little virtual pin going The little pin. You know, it's just making crap up. And then there's an argument though, because you said, you know, 35 minutes is happening. Well, then there's a perception of, I get quality care? Because it went so fast. did they get overlooked?

April Gillam (28:53)
Yeah.

Yeah,

I think that's a really good question because my friend Brandon and I have had this conversation. Patients actually perceive their quality of care of, I get my question answered? And so if they didn't, that's gonna be their answer. But for instance,

PCMP (29:22)
Right.

April Gillam (29:29)
If I'm coming into urgent care because I have a sore throat and you know, my nose is dripping and as soon as I walk through the door, they swab me and you know, that test is 10 minutes and I'm flu positive and I leave my flu prescription. I don't feel like I got rushed out the door.

PCMP (29:46)
Good to go. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. mean, it's

real though, cause yesterday I had to go for an MRI and I showed up and had my MRI and CT scan done in all 35 minutes from showing up to walking out. And it was like 35, 40 minutes.

April Gillam (30:02)
Hmm?

PCMP (30:05)
And I felt like I got exactly what I was supposed to get. it wasn't like in the, talking about care too, so the guy that was like leading me around doing everything, he was like, I see where you probably have some back pain. It's like, I'm okay right now. He's like, man, it looks like it could hurt though. He's just having a conversation as a radiologist to me. Cause he could see what I, what was going on. And, that care piece matters. But yeah, but at the end of the day, they got the answer they wanted. It wasn't a waste of everybody's time. And I spent maybe less than 10 minutes in a waiting room.

you know, going through all of it.

April Gillam (30:40)
Yeah. so it's, you know, coming back to like the metrics that matter, it's really getting each person who works in the clinic to have ownership for a portion of that door to door time that, again, that they feel motivated to own. And it is the carrot and not the stick.

PCMP (30:50)
Yeah.

April Gillam (31:02)
because if they feel beaten down by it, then honestly they'll do things to manipulate it or hide or cause turnover. And so that's what I really encourage. And it's my big reflection after visiting, you know, visiting clinics here recently is like, this is an area that I think has been lost in COVID because we just saw so many patients.

PCMP (31:10)
Yep. yeah.

April Gillam (31:29)
and leaders had to focus on building and had to focus on their boards and so many things. So let's get back in the clinics. Let's get back to basics because when we talk about our future revenue and our future growth and growing access to care, what matters is every single minute. And more Americans know about urgent care than ever before.

And so how can we continue that access to care, especially because right now our economy is so hard on Americans and nobody needs to be in the emergency room unnecessarily. More Americans have gone away from their PCPs than ever before. so Americans really need urgent care. And so let's continue to make it great.

PCMP (32:18)
I don't think there's a better exclamation point on our podcast episode than what you just said. I want to ask one call to action question for our urgent cares that listen. And then we'll wrap up and go out and here it is.

How do you recommend breaking down? said back to basics. How do you recommend breaking down those three measurables door to door? And I'm sorry. It sounds like somebody's in our office. I'm a little squirt. Sounds like somebody walked in our office. a little bit. We may have to push a pause on that just for this piece here. I apologize. Make it, make a note of that and we'll, edit this part of the podcast. Will you give us two seconds? It's weird because we're the only one supposed to be here right now.

April Gillam (32:43)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah!

That's, break it, home alone.

PCMP (33:09)
Yeah. Hello. We're working in here.

April Gillam (33:13)
That's funny.

PCMP (33:16)
Weird. Sorry.

April Gillam (33:18)
No, that's funny.

PCMP (33:22)
Awkward.

April Gillam (33:25)
Whoa.

PCMP (33:26)
I just, if you're

in here, just keep it down a little bit until we finish up.

I think the landlord came in randomly.

Who is that?

April Gillam (33:37)
That is so

sweet.

PCMP (33:40)
okay. I didn't know we were having somebody in. I feel bad now. Anyway. Okay, you made a note of the time. Make a note back of this time. Hi, April. Make a note of this time real quick. What do you got it at?

All right, we'll know to clip that out. Okay, back to my question. All right. So given that back to basics that you just said, let's do a quick breakdown and then we'll take her out. Okay. The three things, the three measures, you're looking at door to door, you're looking at your total available capacity during the day, and then your net promoter score, more importantly, focused on reviews. If we're going to go back to basics, what are the things that we need to look at in those three different areas so that we can have improved?

April Gillam (33:58)
You

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so again with the door to door, we're gonna break down our first wait time by, know, from the time that they arrive, the time they're here to the time that they're ready to be seen. So they finished their registration, payment, all that, they're ready to be seen. And then from the time that they're ready to be seen to the time that they're called back to the exam room. So that's the time that we're measuring either our tech or our MA or.

our nurse, whoever is responsible to call them back, that's where we're measuring them. And then we have our time that they're in the exam room to the time that they're actually discharged. And so this is where we're measuring our provider turn time. And so again, this is gonna be an average, I always have the person who says like, well, what about the IV patients and the breathers who are on the successive nebs? We can take this as a medium if you want.

PCMP (35:18)
Yeah, exactly.

April Gillam (35:19)
Outfit outliers, this is an 80-20 rule. There's always gonna be some sort of outlier, okay?

PCMP (35:24)
And that's why

averages are four, right? Like we understand there's going to be those outliers, but at the end of the day, this is about where your range is and this is what you want to focus on.

April Gillam (35:32)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and that's why I always say like you can take an average if you have extreme outliers like they're there for eight hours then take a median, you know, and that will really take out the extreme outliers.

PCMP (35:44)
Yeah,

Very good. So reviews, you have a total solution for that, which we totally agree with.

April Gillam (35:49)
Yeah.

Yes, so

actually Solve does have an AI powered solution for reviews because especially if you're seeing a lot of patients and you are soliciting for a lot of reviews, then they become hard to manage and you should be responding to all reviews even if they are positive. And so we do have an AI powered solution that will respond in your tone any way that you want. And then of course for those ones that may not be positive,

There is a whole, basically a management system that can have you ticket them and send them to different people based on what kind of review it is. Because I'll give you an example. In my former life, we would have our customer service reviews that maybe somebody had like a billing experience that they were complaining about, or maybe it was something more at the front desk about somebody's demeanor.

And then if somebody ever complained about a medical reason, then we would immediately send that to a medical director because we would want that to be medically reviewed. Everything is HIPAA and PHI compliant. So of course, we're not going to address anything that is specific to the patient. But what I really love about this AI review engine is if it can detect that the email address matches a profile that was seen within solve.

it will show you, not on Google, it will show you insights about that patient's visit. So it will show you the total door-to-door time, the wait time, and any specific insights related to that patient. So let's say that they did complain about the wait time. It will show you if that average wait time was above the average for that day. So if they were that outlier for the day and they did have an above average wait time, it'll let you kind of cross-reference what happened.

PCMP (37:27)
Nice.

Or it can be the, it was, I waited too long. look at the average wait time that they had the best wait time of the whole day. You're like, all right, just be quiet, Betty. Pro tip when you get a positive review and they mentioned a provider by name, take that review to your provider and edify them for it. Yes, absolutely. That never happens. Yeah.

April Gillam (37:51)
Yes.

Yeah.

Yes, and actually

that's one thing that Solve intentionally does is when you get a positive review, it actually shows up inside our software. We don't do that with negative reviews, it shows up and explodes and it's like, review.

PCMP (38:18)
That might be a bad ride. I love it. It's a party.

The other metric and then we'll roll out. The other metric is going to be your average daily patient volume, right? And it seems to me like controlling your door to door is going to have a profound impact on your capacity. But let's talk about increasing your average daily value. What's your plan of attack there? Back to basics.

April Gillam (38:31)
Mm-hmm.

Yes, back to basics. So I find that there is a wide delta and range of how people understand the internet impacts your volume. And so my first recommendation is to optimize your online funnels to increase your volume. If you don't have online booking, if you don't have a booking button directly on your GMB page,

If you have low quantity and quality reviews, those are gonna be my first things that I'm gonna tell you. Hey, these are the things we have to work on for volume because this is where patients searching for same day next day care are going. Even your existing patients who are loyal to you, they're still going to Google to remember your web.

PCMP (39:35)
That's right. Brand,

brand, brand, brand, brand, brand, brand, brand, brand, brand,

April Gillam (39:39)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

PCMP (40:05)
We talked a lot about that. that patient to keep coming back is such a challenge. But once you start to figure some of that out, then your volume naturally rises anyway, because you're just now bringing back patients that trust you. And you're not having to fight for that patient as much as you had the new patients never heard of you before.

April Gillam (40:22)
Yeah. Well, and the thing is, is even your patients who do trust you and remember you, a lot of times they can't remember your website URL. So you're going to Google to remember what your website was. and so that's some of the behavior of like why you need to optimize because like, for instance, another group could be using your exact same search term, and trying to like,

PCMP (40:30)
Exactly.

Yes.

April Gillam (40:49)
go over you on Google, you know, on ranking. So these are things you really need to focus on so that a competitor doesn't steal your existing patient just because they went to Google to search your website, you know? And then I would say in clinic, make sure that you prepare, like if you have online booking.

or even a get in line queue, and it's not necessarily for a time, it's a get in line. Prepare for those patients before they arrive. You would be wildly surprised how many people have online booking or get in line queue, and they have all the information to prepare for the patient before they arrive, and they don't do it. And then they have massive waits, and the patient's like, I got in line, or I booked a time, and you had all my stuff.

And then they have lots of cancellations and left without being seen yet. It's like, help me help you.

PCMP (41:43)
They blame us

for it. exactly. blame us for it. My, personally have had situations where I, I booked, it's online and I go fill out like the, is for a specialist thing, like five pages of questionnaire. Like, cool. I'm good. And so you're checked in. Great. And I go to the actual employer in person and they hand me the clipboard here, fill us out. like, I did this online. Did you all not see it? She said, no, go ahead and do it. And I'm like, I'll go somewhere else. Yeah. Like I'm not going to open up the screen and see if it happened.

for real or we haven't actually connected all our dots yet. I that happen the other day. was like, Hey, I'm pretty sure I paid this already. She said, yeah, I see where you paid it, but our systems don't talk to each other. So I'm glad you caught that. I was like, me too.

April Gillam (42:13)
Mm-hmm.

man, yeah, so

there's low hanging fruit and some people have to do the work.

PCMP (42:31)
Yeah. Yeah. It could be such a better experience.

Yeah. And it's better for them too. Like the provider, it's better for the provider. Like we already gave you what you needed. We, when I, when I, like to talk about good experiences. I was in Colorado with my son, early summer, going right into the summer. So I guess late spring and I got some kind of an ear throat infection thing. And so I went to, actually one of our clients or that we had a client there. So I went to my client in Colorado.

And, when I walked through it, cause I had filled out everything online. When I walked through the door, they go, Hey, are you Nick? And I'm like, that's hot. Yes, I am. And they're, they, I never hit their chair. They go, we're ready for you. Come on back. Yeah, that's like, they didn't ask me for anything, but my ID to confirm that I was the human that they were looking for. But they asked me before, right when I walked in, by the way, there were other people filling out stuff that didn't do this online. The walk-ins.

April Gillam (43:16)
That's what we love to hear.

PCMP (43:28)
I pass right by the wall. I bet they're like, what'd that guy do? that guy's jerk. All right. Last, last question that I promise we're done because we're, we're, over on time, which is totally allowable when you're on the podcast with us, by the way. I just want you to know that you get the secret ingredient of being able to do that. I just like, this is just for my own personal, what converts better on solve, check in online or an actual time. What converts better and get them through.

April Gillam (43:52)
So like saying the wait list versus picking a time. picking a time. That's thing is the consumer today, especially you have to consider like the average consumer for urgent care today is 25 to 45 years old. So they are in that, know, Gen Z Millennial zone and they prefer certainty.

PCMP (43:55)
Yeah, what's better? Okay. I didn't know that. I was curious. Okay.

Ready. Yeah.

April Gillam (44:19)
And so, and this is anybody in healthcare, people are asking, when can I be seen? Where can I be seen? And how much is it gonna cost? And so we're opaque about those things. They're like, well, I'm gonna go look somewhere else to see if I can find out those things. So they do prefer to pick a general time, yeah.

PCMP (44:38)
I will not leave my house for a restaurant on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday without a reservation period. No questions asked. Don't even ask me. don't know. I don't want to go out with you unless you have a reservation. So I do have one piggyback question on this just because I'm never leaving the podcast. I'm legitimately curious here. Just it's a very simple question, but we get this question with every single new urgent care client. Is it save your spot or check in online?

April Gillam (44:49)
Yeah.

PCMP (45:10)
And that's how we react like, we don't know what to tell them either. So we're in the same boat.

April Gillam (45:15)
So check in online to me, and this is my personal opinion, check in online to me is more you're doing your registration. And save my spot is like I'm getting on a wait list or like I'm getting an order. And so that's what that means. And a book online is like I've got it time.

PCMP (45:22)
Right.

Yeah, I got

a time. Yeah.

April Gillam (45:40)
Now that's all nuance. It can mean whatever it means for your business. Solve distinctly has, we can do the waitlist product, which is you actually have ordering and sequencing. It just does not have a time associated with it. And then we have a book online that has a time associated with it.

PCMP (45:59)
Yeah.

I was just curious what the preferred method was there. Yeah. Cause we get that quite literally every time we even ask Clint, which one do you prefer? And like, what do you think? Like, well, I try not to think about it. Yeah. Like long as there's a button that recognizes some type of online booking, something where they can get a time. Let's go that route. But it's just funny to me because we have clinics to do either or, and they don't care. We don't see big changes in call and like,

April Gillam (46:01)
Thank

PCMP (46:28)
click through rates on it. It's just, it is what it is. I think people recognize the button. They don't really, as long as it doesn't say billing, they're totally fine. That's right. They don't want the pay now button. They don't want the pay button. They just want the book now button. All right. I'm going to call the hard play. I'm going to take us out. We have had, we have had another, one of the best conversations with your best friend, April, who's been hanging out with us today. And here's what I want to encourage you to do. Here's my call to action for you. You need to go find April Gillum on LinkedIn.

because in my personal humble, but accurate opinion, there isn't a better content creator in the urgent care space than April. content is still are stuff. real men. I'll be like, dang it, she's so good. And we do this for We're like, Hey, did you see what April just posted? April, thank you so much for coming on with us again. All right. Well, we're going to have you back for number four, I'm sure. We're going to have a whole little thing on our

April Gillam (47:16)
Thank you. I love being here.

PCMP (47:24)
Here's our podcast and here's our segments with April. Here's the April segments. y'all have a great week and a happy new year and we will see you next time. Thanks April.