Hunters Hill Medical Practice is built on a community-focused tradition that dates back to the 1860s. So it’s safe to say they’ve seen a lot of change over the years!
We spoke with Practice Manager, Katrina, about the changes they’ve seen, the patient journey they create and how HealthEngine has helped them to put measures in place to ensure this clinic continues to serve their community for many years to come.
The Practice
Winner of the AGPAL Chair General Practice of the Year 2015-2017, Hunters Hills Medical Practice puts a focus on preventative medicine and providing a holistic approach to patient treatment. They offer GP services, vaccinations, physiotherapy, clinical pilates classes, psychology services, and even have a registered dietician on-site.
The Challenges
As a growing surgery, Hunters Hills Medical Practice noticed that they were spending more and more time organising patient bookings and less time on their actual patients.
Without an automated patient booking system in place, patients could only make bookings during opening hours so if they wanted to book at night or on a Sunday they could be waiting up to 12 hours for the practice to open – giving them no comfort that they could be seen by a doctor at a time that suited them. As a result, the clinic was inundated with an overwhelming volume of calls every Monday morning.
It’s a familiar story for a lot of practices.
The high call volumes meant patients were left waiting for their bookings to be processed, listening to hold music while other patients made bookings, or left at the counter waiting to pay while the front desk staff organised new bookings and appointments.
The challenge was to streamline the process, making sure that new and returning patients could book when they wanted, at times that suited them and also take some of the administrative burden from the front desk staff, leaving them free to interact with their patients more.
How They Achieved This
The team at Hunters Hill Medical Practice started from the ground up, engaging directly with their community to ask for their ideas. They asked for email feedback on how they could provide a better patient experience, coupling this with the information they had received from the surveys they ran during their AGPAL accreditation process.
The clear response from their patients was that they needed a better booking system.
Adopting HealthEngine allowed their patients to book online themselves. No more waiting until the next day, no more being put on hold; they could make an appointment on the spot, as soon as they needed one.
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Want Free Online Bookings, SMS Reminders AND Scripts For Your Practice?
Discover our FREE all-in-one patient engagement solution.
View OfferThe Result
The Hunters Hill team pride themselves on their patient journey. Switching to HealthEngine helped Hunters Hill reduce their administration load, freeing up their time, which gave them more time to spend with their community, and focus on their patients.
When first-time patients attend the Hunters Hills clinic, they can expect quality care—in every sense.
They can book online whenever they want, there’s a smooth, easy registration process at the front desk and even on-the-spot nursing care for those that need nursing attention right away.
With Allied and Specialist services running in adjacent areas of the building, their patients know they’re getting holistic, quality care.
And it doesn’t just stop at the practice. Each patient receives automatically-generated reminder messages and a follow-up call with their results.
Simply put, the Hunters Hill team now feel like they’re making time for their patients, and providing them with the attention and care they deserve. After all, patients provided with good service create positive word-of-mouth.
After three years of using HealthEngine to streamline their patient bookings Katrina estimates that more than 75% of their bookings are returning patients. The results speak for themselves.
For Katrina, their success has been all about making their patient journey a smooth one.
We asked Katrina what she thinks are the three key things that Hunters Hill Medical Practice does that makes their patients come back:
1. That personal touch – we follow up and call them with their results.
2. We give them time to be heard and don’t just try and churn out patients as fast as we can.
3. Having a multi-disciplinary team on the premises makes it easy for patients, as we can make bookings for them, there and then.
Want to know how to get started with HealthEngine?
We’re here to discuss how HealthEngine solutions can help you connect better with patients and improve your practice efficiency.
There’s no obligation, simply fill out the form or call 1300 297 709 and we’ll be in touch shortly.
