WP 71 | The 5 Systems Every Practice Owner Needs with David Sturgess

Written By James Marland
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Introduction 

In this era of technological advancement, running a successful private practice demands more than just medical expertise. Designed to boost efficiency, productivity, and service delivery, there are specific systems every practice owner needs for better business operations. Join Whitney Owens as she hosts David Sturgess in an insightful discussion on quintessential systems for private practice. 

About David Sturgess

An industry expert and repeat guest on the Wise Practice Podcast, David Sturgess, a licensed professional counselor in Marietta, Georgia, has an extensive background in business operations in the health sector. With a focus on individuals and families healing from trauma, his expertise extends to consulting and training for churches, schools, businesses, and agencies. 

Five Essential Systems for Every Practice Owner

1. Website

Considered the home base and landing page for prospective clients, a website is a must-have for any private practice. It doesn't matter whether it's a Squarespace or WordPress website, your website serves as a funnel that channels new clients to you. Though creating and managing a website may seem daunting, it's crucial for establishing a professional image, attracting clients, and receiving referrals. 

2. Google Workspace

With Google Workspace, you can effectively manage your email, calendar, tasks, documents, and other administrative details. Also, because you'll need to communicate with referral sources and clients, Google Workspace hosts this function, keeping things streamlined and organized. However, always remember to sign the Business Associate Agreement to ensure compliance with United States HIPAA law.

3. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) 

An EHR system is vitally important regardless of whether you're running a solo or group practice. It not only tracks your appointments but also organizes your medical records and billing, saving you a lot of valuable time. As a word of advice, always ensure to pick an EHR that suits your needs now and in the future to prevent having to switch between different EHRs.

4. Financial Management System

A top recommended financial management tool is QuickBooks. Keeping your finances organized and efficient, this tool allows you to manage your income, invoices, tax records, expenses, and transfers. QuickBooks is also beneficial because it helps track financial trends in your business.

5. Phone Systems

A professional phone system like Spruce can make all the difference in managing client communication effectively. It offers extensions, fax options, and encrypted two-way texting among other features. Remember, whether you're using your personal cell phone or a dedicated business line, it's essential that the app has appropriate encryption to keep your client information secure.

Conclusion 

In the ever-evolving world of practice management, these five essential systems can make the difference website, accessible Google Workspace, efficient EHR, robust financial management, and a profession between merely functioning and truly thriving. By ensuring you have a top-notch phone system, you set the foundation for a successful and profitable private practice. 

Get in touch with David Sturgess at David@wisepracticeconsulting.com for more insights about business consulting for private practice owners.

What is Alma, and How Can It Help You?

  • Alma - Your private practice support system. Alma offers clinicians the opportunity to join their insurance program, providing benefits such as getting credentialed within 45 days and enhanced reimbursement rates with major payers. 

Wise Practice Work Retreat

Links and Resources


Podcast Production and Show Notes by Course Creation Studio.

  • WP 71 | The 5 Systems Every Practice Owner Needs with David Sturgess

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    [00:00:00] Whitney Owens:

    [00:00:04] Whitney Owens: Going in network with insurance can be tough, such as benefits checks, catering to the insurance company's needs rather than your client needs, late payments, and at times making less than you deserve. Filling all the right paperwork is time consuming and tedious, and even when you're done. It could take months to get credentialed and start seeing clients.

    [00:00:23] Whitney Owens: That's why Alma makes it easy and financially rewarding to accept insurance. When you join their insurance program, you can get credentialed within 45 days and access to enhanced reimbursement rates with major payers. They also handle all the paperwork from eligibility checks to claim submissions and guaranteed payment within two weeks of each appointment.

    [00:00:43] Whitney Owens: Once you've joined Alma's insurance program, you can see clients in your state of licensure, regardless of where you work from. This is particularly great when you're traveling for amazing conferences or with your family. Learn more about building a thriving private pay practice with Alma at helloalma.

    [00:00:59] Whitney Owens: com slash wise practice. That's hello, a L M a. com slash wise practice.

    [00:01:11] Whitney Owens: Hello, friends, and thank you for listening to the podcast today. I'm looking forward to sharing with you an interview that I just completed with David circus. And when we talked about the 5 systems that every private practice owner needs, and it was full of great content and important, not only for solo practice owners getting started, but really along the way, like, we have to make transitions and changes with different systems that we use.

    [00:01:33] Whitney Owens: And when we're talking about systems, we're talking about those 3rd parties that we interact with, like your HR, your phone line. How do you select those what's important with those and even as a group practice, like I've had to pivot with those as well and made changes to the ones I'm using, depending on what phase I'm in and what my needs are.

    [00:01:49] Whitney Owens: So all practice owners are really going to enjoy this episode, but before we go in, I have a couple of things I want to update you on and exciting things going on within the community. So as you know, I've. The podcast is called wise practice podcast, but I personally, my business has been Whitney Owens consulting.

    [00:02:07] Whitney Owens: I honestly made it that name because I kind of was in a rush to create a consulting business. A lot of people already knew my name and I kind of was branding it around me. So that's where Whitney Owens consulting came from. And I know some of you probably understand that you might have your own name for your private practice.

    [00:02:24] Whitney Owens: Maybe you've changed your name of your practice over time. But I am here to announce that I am in the process of changing it. Well, really making a DBA. So that's doing business as if you haven't heard of that. So I'll give you some business jargon here and it is becoming wise practice consulting. So I'm excited about changing that name.

    [00:02:42] Whitney Owens: And one of the reasons I'm changing it is I am looking to make the consulting more community oriented, not so dependent on me. And part of that is adding consultants to the business. Um, and it's the same thing I tell you guys as solo practice owners looking to start a group. You have so many people coming in wanting therapy and you're feeling overwhelmed and you can offer more services.

    [00:03:03] Whitney Owens: And plus I just like doing things in community and that's what wise practice is all about. It's about a community of faith based practice owners. So I am in the process of hiring contractors to the practice and David is actually my first contractor that I've hired. So I'm excited for you to get to know him on the show today.

    [00:03:20] Whitney Owens: And he actually was on a show long time ago, right? When I started this podcast, if you want to go back and check out that episode. So David specializes in working with solo practice owners who are either starting or really wanting to grow their solo practice. And especially people who are feeling really overwhelmed with kind of the systems and getting organized and often on insurance panels and how do I manage my money and just feeling overwhelmed or trying to get the phone to ring.

    [00:03:47] Whitney Owens: All those different challenges that solo practice owners face. He helps with all of those. Um, and even though I do love working with solo practice owners, I'm going to be spending more of my time working with group owners within the wise practice consulting community. So those are some of the exciting things going on.

    [00:04:03] Whitney Owens: And as well, David and I are going to be hosting a retreat in Atlanta, which is actually going to be at his practice, which is in Marietta, Georgia. Small world, I used to live there, so I know exactly where the Marietta square is and you might have also been to Marietta a time or 2 in your life, but we will be hosting a retreat there in April of this year.

    [00:04:23] Whitney Owens: So that's April 11th, 12th and 13th. This retreat is. specifically for group practice owners. Now I've hosted retreats in the past that have been a little bit more focused on slowing down, relaxing, thinking more about our business, listening to God. This one, I mean, it will be some of those things, but it's mostly focused on getting work done.

    [00:04:43] Whitney Owens: I know as a group practice owner, it can be hard to find the time and the space to work on our practice with the demands going on within the office, just coming home, being with their home commitments, running your kids around. So having a space dedicated to working on some things in your practice. So group practice owners from around the country are going to come to Atlanta.

    [00:05:03] Whitney Owens: We're actually going to be at David's practice at Foundry Counseling. And you will bring your goals, the things you want to work on. So that might be your hiring process. It could be your handbook. It might be, um, you're wanting to implement staff meetings in your practice. Maybe you want to work on a side business that you want to create now that your group practice is running.

    [00:05:22] Whitney Owens: You have something else that you want to be doing. I can tell you at the retreats that I not only have hosted, but attended, I make some of the best relationships. Because it's focused, they're people with like minded ideas and a faith that's similar to mine. And there's a lot of connection there. And so it's been special to bounce ideas off those people.

    [00:05:39] Whitney Owens: And then you're also going to have two consultants there to help you along the way, which is really great. When you're trying to like brainstorm an idea, you're not sure what system to put in place. You'll have that assistance right there with you and cheerleaders helping you along. And I will say, one of the girls that signed up when we had her pre consulting call to talk about this retreat, she was like, well, Whitney, I think the thing that pushed me over the edge was you're going to be hanging out with me at the hotel after the end of the day.

    [00:06:05] Whitney Owens: So we can have fun. And so if you're motivated also by fun, because I'm motivated by work and fun, let that be a motivator to you. And my goal is to get a karaoke night in there because I love karaoke. Now, that doesn't mean you have to sing unless you want to. So, all right. So if you want to get in on this retreat, we're already halfway full.

    [00:06:23] Whitney Owens: You can head to whitneyowens. com and you will see work retreat at the top there. You can get all the information. If you want to do a quick call with me to talk through, if this is a good fit for you in your practice, just shoot me an email. And it's Whitney at wise practice consulting. com. See, I got a Gmail account for wise practice consulting.

    [00:06:42] Whitney Owens: Uh, we're going to talk about that in the episode. So anyway, lots of exciting stuff, looking forward to the retreat in April and happy to have you listen to the show today, where you're going to learn about the systems that you need in your private practice.

    [00:07:18] Whitney Owens: Hello, friends, and welcome back to the wise practice podcast. So glad you could be here with me. And today I have special friend and repeat guest David Sturgis here on the show. So let me tell you a little bit about David and then we're going to jump into the episode talking about different systems that every private practice.

    [00:07:39] Whitney Owens: Owner needs and their practice. So David is a licensed professional counselor and located in Marietta, Georgia, and he owns foundry counseling, which is right off Marietta square and has been the business owner there for 5 plus years. His experience and focus is helping individuals and families learning how to cope and heal from childhood and family systems trauma.

    [00:07:58] Whitney Owens: Self destructive and life threatening behaviors, dual diagnoses, trauma among military and first responders and their families, and providing consulting and training to churches, schools, businesses, and a variety of agencies. He's intense, intensively trained in TFCBT, trauma informed care, and dialectical behavioral therapy.

    [00:08:18] Whitney Owens: Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. All right. Well, great. Um, so we're going to talk about five systems that every private practice owner needs in their business, which is a pretty common question that we hear across the board for practice owners. So why don't we just jump in? What is the first one that you would say?

    [00:08:37] David Sturgess: So I would recommend a website. You got to have a place to have your clients funneled to whether it's you having a psychology today, profile, um, social media, however, you're going to get people to connect with you. You've got to have that kind of home base landing page. Um, and so, uh, uh, Whether it's a Squarespace or the WordPress, all those different variables, um, are really dependent on what your skill level is right in terms of, are you going to be managing this initially?

    [00:09:16] David Sturgess: Do you need to connect with somebody that specializes in a website development? Um, but it needs to be done well, and it needs to be set up to be able to receive those referrals. Um, when you start to connect with different marketing web pages like a Psychology Today or Google My Business.

    [00:09:37] Whitney Owens: Yeah, I'm amazed how many therapists actually don't have a website.

    [00:09:41] David Sturgess: Right. Yeah. They, they kind of use psychology today as their platform, um, you know, which isn't an EHR. It isn't, you know, a place to kind of put your name out there, right? We, back in the old days, we had the yellow pages, you know, and, and now the, the websites are really those places where folks are going to find you.

    [00:10:08] Whitney Owens: Yeah. All right. So if somebody is new to private practice, let's say they're in their first few months And they're thinking a website that is just a big thing to tackle. What would you recommend for that?

    [00:10:22] David Sturgess: So finding somebody that I'll back up for a second, though, the, the idea of, do you have the skill or not, right?

    [00:10:32] David Sturgess: It's one thing to, to hop on and do a, a self paced tutorial type of thing and create some pictures and some words when it comes to the SEO. Search engine optimization. Um, where do the pictures go? The headings, the backlinks, uh, the keywords that gets very technical and very specialized. We went to school to be clinicians.

    [00:10:57] David Sturgess: We did not go to school to be website designers. Um, and many of us don't have a small business, you know, knowledge or skillset, unless we've intentionally gone and set it out, set out for it. So. Um, finding somebody, um, that is competent in it and preferably somebody that has experience with therapists and their websites.

    [00:11:25] David Sturgess: Um, I think different industries in terms of their websites. Um, kind of require different things, you know, there's, there's different nuances to different industries and how the websites operate and websites can also get a whole lot more complicated than they have to be. Um, the idea of plugins, right?

    [00:11:46] David Sturgess: People get a bazillion different plugins to do all these different things and they break and they crash. And how do I fix it? And you know, what, what are Google analytics? Um, and a good website developer. Would be able to manage and facilitate all of that. Um, and and we and the wise practice community have connections with several good.

    [00:12:10] David Sturgess: Um, and so you don't have to go far, um, to find good people.

    [00:12:20] Whitney Owens: So when you first started your practice, did you pay somebody to make your website or did you do it

    [00:12:25] David Sturgess: yourself? I tried to do a Squarespace site all by myself. Um, and it worked. It, I mean, you know, I, I was able to do some YouTubes and tutorials, um, and get something up there.

    [00:12:40] David Sturgess: Um, but the appearance of it, And everything that I just referred to, um, I, I ultimately was able to afford to be able to have somebody come back in and make it what it needed to be. Um, and it, it's a, it's a task that is kind of like one of those living documents, right? Like you're constantly wanting to update your website and, um, redo certain keyword searches and, and things like that.

    [00:13:13] David Sturgess: So it's, it's certainly something that can be forgotten about. Um, and. I think your, your business will suffer when you do forget about it. Um, so starting out, you know, financially I had to, I, I couldn't afford to go pay somebody to do it. Um, but it was high on the priority list once. Revenue was coming in, um, to get it kind of redone so to speak.

    [00:13:44] Whitney Owens: Yeah, I'm glad we started with websites. I think it is the most important part. I'm going to blow your mind here, but when I went into private practice, I made a website for five therapists. We were a collective. I made it. Yes, I made it. And it was WordPress. I'm like, how did I ever do that? Of course, WordPress was a lot easier, you know, 10, 15 years ago than it is now.

    [00:14:07] Whitney Owens: And then when I got to Savannah, I did another WordPress site and people would call and they'd be like, your website looks great. And I'm like, really, it looks awful. And uh, so anyway, then finally I found a, uh, SCAD major. His wife was watching my kids and he offered he to do my website for me and then it got a lot better.

    [00:14:29] Whitney Owens: And that was also WordPress. And then I got Sarah and she made my consulting website. Of course, in my ignorance, I went on the website and deleted all of it. And then she called me and she was like, are you not happy with the website I just made for you? And I was like, Oh my gosh, I deleted it all. I thought it was beautiful.

    [00:14:52] Whitney Owens: And then I had to pay twice to get a website done. But yes, having someone do it for you is definitely the best go round. Um, and if you have to do it yourself, you know, Squarespace is manageable. And it is really nice what you were talking about being able to go on and make quick updates. Like, I literally just went on my website and made an update that didn't bother Sarah about it, which is really nice.

    [00:15:13] Whitney Owens: So being able to know at least a little bit about website development, not enough that you're going to delete it or

    [00:15:18] David Sturgess: anything, right? Yeah. Yeah. There's different platforms out there that are more of a drag and drop, you know, type Easy editing, um, and not have to get into all the coding and, and things of that nature.

    [00:15:35] David Sturgess: But when you do start to get into some of that back end coding, that's where the, the magic, I guess, really happens, right? Where you can really start to hone in on that niche population, whether it's for you or your group practice. Um, and I guess to kind of tangent over into a sole versus a group practice owner.

    [00:15:58] David Sturgess: Like the website necessity is, is very different in those two. because with your group, you've got multiple therapists that you're wanting to get out there and get in front of people. Um, you got a lot of more different keywords and things of that nature. So you do want to make sure you got at least another set of eyes on it.

    [00:16:22] David Sturgess: Yeah.

    [00:16:23] Whitney Owens: Great. All right. So what would be the next system that a practice owner needs?

    [00:16:28] David Sturgess: Um, along with the, the, The website, um, I'd, I'd say Google workspace, um, and I would kind of set those up simultaneously, right? Uh, so your, your email, how are you going to be able to communicate back and forth with referral sources or, um, when clients do call and book and things of that nature?

    [00:16:54] David Sturgess: Um, and a little bit outside of a Google Workspace, um, and kind of a different item here on our list are our EHRs, electronic health records. And so, um, the scheduling and how does that fit in, um, with Google Workspace, a lot of, you know, you're syncing a calendar, right? So. Having a place from an administrative standpoint, kind of like your website is, is that landing page for folks when they're finding you on the world wide web.

    [00:17:29] David Sturgess: Um, you've got to have an organized place when it comes to email and your calendar and your task list and documents, drive, folder, you know, things of that nature, whether it be a, um, clinical resource, you know, that you want to print out and give to different clients for dialectical behavior therapy, or Gopin stuff, or EMDR stuff.

    [00:17:53] David Sturgess: Um, but then just the, the organization management of financial documents, you know, your, your bank statements and your tax records, you know, all of that stuff has to be stored somewhere. And so, um, having it secure in the cloud organized, um, you don't have to have file cabinets of a bunch of paper. Um, and, and so it's, it's secure, it's portable, um, and a, and a place that's also on the phone, on the laptop, um, and you don't lose it.

    [00:18:32] Whitney Owens: So, I have a lot of people tell me they don't want to pay for it. Which I think it's what, 12 bucks, 14 a month, something. Something like

    [00:18:40] David Sturgess: that. For that entry level.

    [00:18:45] Whitney Owens: Which is important because that's the compliant one, right?

    [00:18:49] David Sturgess: Yes. Okay. You do have to have the BAA signed.

    [00:18:54] Whitney Owens: Yes. What's a, what

    [00:18:55] David Sturgess: is that? The business associate agreement for the United States HIPAA law.

    [00:19:00] David Sturgess: Um, and there's a lot of nuances with. With all of that, um, in terms of encryption of email, um, and, and what does that Google BAA cover? Um, and you know, that, that's where, um, again, making sure you're consulting with somebody or you're going to some sort of security type of expert. Um, a lot of our liability insurance companies have these resources as, as, um, kind of like freebies, you know, in terms of this is what you need to.

    [00:19:35] David Sturgess: Make sure exists. Um, but Google does have, when that BAA is signed, they kind of refer to it as that umbrella, um, of everything in the account is encrypted and protected. The second you send an email out, though, you have to have some sort of email encryption, um, because Google doesn't do Um, and so that's where, uh, uh, Pawbox, Virtue, you know, other different types of email encryption plugins are really helpful for that as well.

    [00:20:14] Whitney Owens: So a lot of people tell me they want to use just regular email or they'll use it through their EHR instead of using Google. Is there a reason why they should use a Google email instead? Depends

    [00:20:27] David Sturgess: on what you're, you're sending. A lot of your EHRs will do those appointment reminders and, um, automatic, uh, assessments, you know, the, um, informed consents and things of that nature.

    [00:20:41] David Sturgess: A lot of EHRs Um, when it comes to a lot of EHRs and just general email communication, many EHRs still don't have a, a two way kind of chat communication feature about, um, and so you're still responsible, irregardless of what platform you're using, what service you're, you're using, you're still responsible and making sure that that's an encrypted message, um, And, and EHR is not, it's not designed for a working email, a working calendar with all your other appointments and responsibilities.

    [00:21:27] David Sturgess: It doesn't have a, a drive, you know, type of environment where you can store those financial documents or a lot of those clinical resources. Um, so it's not a, uh, paying for the same thing twice kind of software. Take care. Bye.

    [00:21:48] Whitney Owens: Yeah, I think the other thing I love about Google Workspace is the domain part that you register for it through your domain and then everyone on your email has that email address.

    [00:22:00] Whitney Owens: And so it's a lot more professional to get an email from Whitney at water's edge counseling, then water's edge counseling at gmail. com or something like that. And then everyone within my domain, and we have access to all the things and. It's a real asset.

    [00:22:17] David Sturgess: Yeah. And I think our, our world is definitely familiar at this point, especially post pandemic of what looks professional, but what is easy to be done, you know, and, and to do something like that, where it's.

    [00:22:32] David Sturgess: And that is the website like people are expecting to see some of that, and I've heard a lot of people won't click on a water's edge counseling at gmail. com they won't interact with that because they do expect from that level of professionalism and appearance for it to be the Whitney at water's edge counseling.

    [00:22:59] David Sturgess: com and then that also. Automatically kind of connect somebody to your website. They're, they're going to see that that is the website to go to.

    [00:23:11] Whitney Owens: Good point. Yeah. All right. So you already kind of went into the third one, which was EHRs.

    [00:23:16] David Sturgess: Yes. Um, you're, you're big ones, simple practice, therapy notes. Um, I use Jane app, um, and you're looking for something that.

    [00:23:29] David Sturgess: suits your needs in terms of, of where you are, you know, a solo practice owner isn't going to require a lot. Um, a self pay practice is not going to, you know, require a lot out of an EHR. Um, you start adding clinicians. Um, you start to deal with different, uh, services that require different diagnoses or different assessments.

    [00:23:55] David Sturgess: Um, if you are an insurance based business model, uh, how is billing, you know, going to work through an EHR and some EHRs are kind of complicated, you know, and unnecessary steps when it comes to billing for insurance. I think a lot of them are. Trying to clean that up. Um, but that too is a place where you're going to keep these records for, um, seven years, right?

    [00:24:24] David Sturgess: So if you leave therapy notes to go to simple practice, what are you doing with all that therapy note, you know, clinical information, you either have to extract that or, um, you know, pay somebody to move it over into simple practice or, um, some EHRs have a, um, kind of archive monthly fee where. It kind of inactivate stuff, but you don't lose the data, um, to account for that seven year requirement.

    [00:24:57] David Sturgess: Um, and so I think from an EHR standpoint, shopping around with what do you need now? But also, if your goal is to grow the practice, what might you need two, three, five years from now, so you aren't bouncing back and forth, you know, between a bunch of different EHRs, um, you can spend a lot of money and a lot of time, you know, on the front end, or you can spend a lot of money on the back end, and, and it's usually more of a hassle on the back end, you know, when you're splitting your clinical records.

    [00:25:35] Whitney Owens: Yeah, it's a good point about thinking about where you're going and what your specific needs are. I. Remember when I was looking at EHRs for me, the credit card fees was a huge part of it because I was cash pay and a group practice. So the more we, I mean, that becomes a ton of money over time that you're losing and credit card fees.

    [00:25:55] David Sturgess: Yeah. I mean, depending on the size of your practice, you're looking at thousands of dollars a month. It is. You know, um, and yeah, okay. You can write that off as a work expense, but at the same time, that's thousands of dollars that isn't going into your. Um, and so you're, you're, you don't really have the choice when you're using EHRs, well, you have the choice in terms of, are you going to process cards through that EHR or not?

    [00:26:27] David Sturgess: But if you're not, then you've got to manually maintain one more subscription to a credit card processing, you know, type of device or machine. Um, you can't do Cash App, you can't do PayPal, like you can't accept clients. Funds that way. Um, and why not your fees. And, and then from a tax standpoint, you've gotta keep account of all of that.

    [00:27:00] David Sturgess: Um, you know, with, there was a recent law that I think it's like over five or $600 through like your Venmo and Cash app and things like that. You have to. Report, um, you know, and so you're still running into expenses in terms of transaction fees and then how do you account for that, you know, in terms of getting invoices and, and super bills and all of that is done within the HR is very, very easily as well.

    [00:27:37] David Sturgess: So you could be a self pay practice. A client wants to turn in a super bill for an out of network service and that's right there within the EHR. So sometimes you pay a little bit more for a credit card fee, you know, because. It allows for a couple of other easier functions. Um, I, I, I like to have as few systems as possible, you know, because it's less to get lost.

    [00:28:13] David Sturgess: It's a less, it's less to manage. Um, and so I'll, I'll usually pay a little bit more to streamline than have three or four different softwares to try to do the same thing.

    [00:28:26] Whitney Owens: Agreed. Yeah, and I think as you have a group practice, it's what's going to make it easier on your employees because you want them to stay and find their job enjoyable.

    [00:28:37] Whitney Owens: So the least amount of things they're logging into and dealing with. Um, the other thing about those 3rd party, uh, processors is sometimes they're not HIPAA compliant like PayPal. Like, you know, you can't. Process client fees for sessions through PayPal or you're not supposed to. Um, so I love this discussion cause it's bringing me back to my newbie days and what I was doing.

    [00:29:00] Whitney Owens: So, so David, what did you do when you first started your practice with EHR and credit card processing?

    [00:29:06] David Sturgess: So, um, I took checks in cash sometimes. Um, and I was thinking, you know, I'm walking out of my office at seven, eight, nine o'clock at night. Um, walking around with hundreds of dollars in cash and checks, that's probably not wise to do.

    [00:29:28] David Sturgess: Um, but then going back to the whole, you know, BAA and confidentiality aspect of what meets PHI criteria, right? That's, that's an email address. PHI, you know, a name is PHIA, phone number is PHI. Um, and then from a bank account standpoint, if something's not encrypted, um, you know, you, you have now exposed risk on your end and your, your client's end, um, and your liability insurance.

    [00:29:59] David Sturgess: Mm-Hmm. is only going to cover you if you've done your due diligence to protect them. Um, so there are a lot of problems with. Those third party payers rolling back to the email, because that, that reminds me some of these email lists, um, MailChimp is not hippocampus. Um, you know, and so when you're sending these mass newsletters to people, you've got to ensure that your PHI is encrypted, whether it's a, an email or a financial transaction.

    [00:30:33] David Sturgess: Mm hmm.

    [00:30:36] Whitney Owens: So were you doing paper? Yeah. Were you doing paper charting then? Or were you using an EHR?

    [00:30:43] David Sturgess: Initially, I was doing paper charting, um, and then I went into, um, simple practice and it worked. It was fine. Um, but then therapy notes, I was introduced to therapy notes and it was much, much cheaper than simple practice.

    [00:31:01] David Sturgess: Um, and then the pandemic happened and, um, therapy notes did not develop their telehealth platform before the pandemic. It was kind of like coming on board. As we were in quarantine, and so I had doxy. me, uh, I had that too. Yeah. And I was like, this is not working. And that's when I went over to Jane app and, um, it's been great.

    [00:31:29] David Sturgess: Uh, but it, you know, it already had the telehealth that had the credit card, you know, on file, you know, and all that type of stuff. Um, but I, I hear therapy notes has done a great job with kind of building that out since.

    [00:31:50] Whitney Owens: Yes, I was also paper charting for a very long time and I started a group practice. We were all paper charting,

    [00:31:57] David Sturgess: man. That's a lot of paper to keep track of. It

    [00:31:59] Whitney Owens: was a lot and a lot of filing cabinets and a lot of keys. Um, yeah, but then we also were using square. Oh, it was great for a moment and then awful and awful and it kept messing up and I'd have to keep calling square and I would be like, this is not worth it because I can't get payments.

    [00:32:17] Whitney Owens: So anyway. Um, we were already planning to move to therapy notes, but we hadn't done it yet and then the pandemic happened. So we made the transition to therapy notes at the exact same time we were all in quarantine. It was terrible because I had to move like six people over. That's a lot. It was a lot.

    [00:32:35] Whitney Owens: But yes, I love therapy notes and I'll have a code in the show notes for people to get two months free. Actually, it's wise if people are looking to try out therapy notes, but.

    [00:32:45] David Sturgess: It's good stuff.

    [00:32:47] Whitney Owens: All right. What's the fourth system there?

    [00:32:50] David Sturgess: Um, financial management. So I personally use QuickBooks. Um, there's a couple of other, you know, cloud based software type of things.

    [00:33:01] David Sturgess: Um, they are, are very good to have because again, we went to school to be clinicians. Um, and unless we have actively taken some sort of Business accounting type of courses. We gotta have a place where this stuff can be organized. Um, and one thing that I like about QuickBooks is my accountant can have access as well.

    [00:33:26] David Sturgess: And so, um, she really appreciates it when I categorize my expenses on time. Um, but, uh, you know, that idea of, okay, here it all is. So come those quarterly payments, you know, um, you know, when you start to have employees, um, keeping track of the, the W2 1099, you know, those types of things. QuickBooks can do all of that.

    [00:33:54] David Sturgess: Um, and so to be able to manage your, your income, um, there are some. Things that I do with consulting and training and things like that where they're not a client from an EHR standpoint So creating an invoice super bill for them wouldn't work in that EHR kind of setting So to be able to create some sort of invoice and QuickBooks and send it to them And, you know, get payment that way.

    [00:34:24] David Sturgess: Um, it, it's another, um, way to kind of increase your services that might not necessarily be clinical. Um, and so again, paying a little bit more, but have something. In one, um, QuickBooks can be really, really simple and expensive, basic accounting, bookkeeping, um, and then for your, your larger practices or your folks that are actively growing their practices, um, it can kind of grow with you very easily, um, and you're not having to export and import a bunch of.

    [00:35:02] David Sturgess: Financial stuff and then it's, it's saved there just like their EHR, um, your, your records are there for months and years to come. And what I like is to be able to look back and look at trends and, you know, kind of see some of that seasonal cyclical type of stuff of, um, I went on vacation or, you know.

    [00:35:28] David Sturgess: School let out. So nobody came to therapy during Christmas break, you know, and you can kind of look back and go, okay, this is what I need to plan for when it comes to your, you know, coming year, uh, from a budget standpoint. Um, so many folks don't budget personally. They don't budget professionally either and, um, you know, we always talk about tracking numbers and you got to track your financial numbers just like you would track your referral sources or, you know, how many clients were seen by so and so on such and such week.

    [00:36:12] Whitney Owens: Yeah, when I was a solo practice owner, I used a checkbook and a ledger and wrote everything in it. And then when it was time to do my taxes, I sat down and did all my taxes myself like an idiot. It was so stressed with all my receipts and categorized everything in one sitting like hours and hours, right?

    [00:36:35] David Sturgess: Oh, receipts. That, that's a good point. Um, because a lot of these types of, of software like QuickBooks, I've got an app on my phone where I can just take a picture of my receipt, and then it automatically matches it with the bank transaction. And so, from a keeping it on file kind of thing, my accountant never yells at me for missing receipts because it's there for her to look at.

    [00:37:01] David Sturgess: I couldn't

    [00:37:02] Whitney Owens: imagine. Well, I might need to make a. I gotta make a change. I couldn't imagine balancing a check at my house with all my receipts in it. It's there though. I don't, I haven't lost them. I used to put them in a folder, like a lit, like a literal folder, not an electronic folder. And now they haven't even made it into the folder.

    [00:37:23] Whitney Owens: They're just in a drawer, but they're there and I own this group practice. Well, let's call it. That's just for that's just for real big receipts that don't I don't get electronically. I, I, I house all the electronic ones. Yeah. But anyway, when I 1st started, I had this checkbook and somebody was like, I think it was a consultant said quick books.

    [00:37:44] Whitney Owens: Like, you need to get quick books. And I'm like, what's I didn't understand. Like, what's that? Why is that any better than what I'm doing? Okay. And I remember when I signed up and it was only like 18 bucks, I was like, holy cow. This has been here the whole time. It was only 18. Like I could have been doing so much better.

    [00:38:01] Whitney Owens: And so I'm saying that story for anyone who doesn't have QuickBooks, like it is totally worth it. And

    [00:38:07] David Sturgess: automatically syncs with the bank. Yeah. Automatically syncs with the bank. You can have your accountant hooked up with it. And, and again, it's just stuff we don't think about when we're starting out, you know, because we're just trying to make.

    [00:38:23] David Sturgess: Ends meet, we're just trying to bring money home to pay the light bill, um, and I get it, you know, I mean, we're, I think we were all there, you know, um, and if, if you can learn it here, you know, and start the system in the beginning. It is a big time saver when it comes to tax time, um, and I try to, the 15th and 30th, I've got it on my calendar to try to just reconcile a couple of weeks at a time.

    [00:39:02] David Sturgess: And when you're doing it in little increments like that, you're talking minutes, you know, instead of at the end of the quarter, hours of trying to remember what went with what and things like that. So. And there's other things besides QuickBooks out there. Some people look at QuickBooks and it just doesn't visually seem user friendly.

    [00:39:28] David Sturgess: Um, so there are other cloud based, you know, bank encrypted type of, um, sites that Are out there again, check how much things cost, you know, um, and what, what services you need. Don't pay for something that you're not going to use.

    [00:39:51] Whitney Owens: All right. All right. So the last one there is

    [00:39:56] David Sturgess: the phone. I don't know how many phone companies I have gone through.

    [00:40:04] Whitney Owens: I said, then, you know, the, the best one then.

    [00:40:06] David Sturgess: Oh man. Um, so kind of in line with the. The website email conversation, um, how are you going to be communicating and receiving your referral increase, right? Um, nowadays everybody goes to Google and therapists near me, ADHD near me, you know, something like that.

    [00:40:30] David Sturgess: And so, um, having on your website, having on your Google, my business, that phone number call now type of button, and they just click that and then it, it rings directly to you. Um, I currently have Spruce as my phone app, and I really enjoy it, um, compared to others I've had. Um, and, and to have phone number, um, extensions for team numbers, fax machine, encrypted two way texting with clients, um, Like that, and it's all on one phone.

    [00:41:10] David Sturgess: I don't have two phones, you know, and so, um, in my hospital days, I had to carry around two phones and I drove me bananas. Um, and then it also is something that can be used on a laptop tablet, you know, from an app. Kind of stamp. Um, so super convenient and relatively inexpensive for everything that it does.

    [00:41:34] David Sturgess: Um, but there's some phone apps out there that are super, super basic, super DIY. And you can mess things up. Um, I don't know why phone systems have to be so complicated, um, but the settings and after hour messages and, you know, forwarding, like it can get really, really complicated. Um, and so spruce makes it super, super easy.

    [00:42:07] David Sturgess: Um, and, and I think visually very user friendly and my clients say they like it a lot too. I think that's another thing. Like if it's going to be an app. That has that kind of two way messaging type of function. Is it going to be customer friendly, client friendly, you know, versus, um, just having a phone number ringing in from someplace else?

    [00:42:37] David Sturgess: So

    [00:42:37] Whitney Owens: why wouldn't I just use my own cell phone number?

    [00:42:41] David Sturgess: Because you don't want clients calling your personal cell phone at two in the morning to schedule an appointment.

    [00:42:48] Whitney Owens: Um, there's a boundary. Oh no, they're going to be calling my Spruce line.

    [00:42:52] David Sturgess: But there's after hours on this freeze line. Um, your, your personal cell phone is your personal cell phone.

    [00:42:58] David Sturgess: So not only is it the, the boundaries of, um, things not being, you know, read by your spouse if the text message came through, you know, and your spouse was looking at your phone for something or whatever, right? Um, but there's the encryption aspect and your, your BAA. With, with, uh, your clients and your spruce, um, does that because they are exclusively a healthcare practice phone app.

    [00:43:32] David Sturgess: Um, but with a lot of other phone apps, um, you, you might have to pay extra for the BAA. Um, and then some phone apps just don't cover BAA. Like Google phone is not a part of the BAA with Google workspace. And a lot of people have a Google phone number. And they think it's under that BAA umbrella, and it's not, um, they're not encrypting that, that phone from a two way, um, set up.

    [00:44:06] David Sturgess: Um, and so your, your personal cell phone, like I have the Spruce app on my personal cell phone, um, but my cell phone, you know, based on our, our standards. Um, is encrypted in and locked, right? So somebody can't pick up my phone and open it up and see client information. Um, there's two or three layers before they would get to something like that.

    [00:44:33] David Sturgess: But again, that, that name, that phone number is PHI and you've got to protect that. Um, so you can use your personal cell phone to hold the app, but that app has to be, um, encrypted, you know, and protected. Yeah,

    [00:44:54] Whitney Owens: I remember talking to a phone company. This is one I didn't end up using, but they were talking about the importance of passcodes and they were like, if you were at a party and your phone was sitting out and everyone's sitting on the sofa could see your phone start ringing and actually see who was calling you.

    [00:45:09] Whitney Owens: That's not good. You know, so like when spruce comes through, it shows me water's edge counseling so that I know it's a water's edge call. Um, so I thought that was a really important thing to decipher there because things do show up on your phone before you've unlocked it.

    [00:45:25] David Sturgess: Yeah. And some of us work in really small communities, too.

    [00:45:29] David Sturgess: Um, and so, um, I, I have a couple of clients at, that see one of my clinicians at, at my practice, but they attend my church. And so, I won't see my church members because I don't want to go to church with my clients like that, but I will Match them with one of my clinicians where I'm not involved in the clinical need but one of the Parents came up talking to my wife about oh, it's such a great fit And my wife had no clue because I don't talk to my wife about You know, P.

    [00:46:12] David Sturgess: H. I. B. A. You know, work stuff. Um, she just wants to know I'm getting a paycheck. Um, so it's even in those kind of settings where in our, in some of our communities and relationships, you know, we've, we've got to draw a really firm boundary and not just keep our mouth shut, but not in, you know, but ensure our clients are not exposed.

    [00:46:40] David Sturgess: And of course, in that situation, you know, the mother voluntarily disclosed, you know, she, she was actually kind of impressed. My wife didn't know. And I'm like, well, remember that whole informed consent thing that you signed?

    [00:46:55] Whitney Owens: Yeah. When we were at a larger church, my husband definitely had people come up after the service.

    [00:46:59] Whitney Owens: If I wasn't there and be like, is Whitney okay? And he's like, Uh, huh. And she's like, that's my therapist. I want to know. Okay. He's like, all right, he come home and be like, do you see this person? I was like, I can't talk about it. Yep. Um, so spruce, yes, I went through, I actually only went through one phone line before spruce and the one I used before was okay, but yeah, spruce is excellent.

    [00:47:20] Whitney Owens: And we actually use it also for the video chat feature because even though therapy notes does have it, I have found that I like the spruce one better. And it's easier to use and I can do it on my phone or my computer, which is really great. So, but we could go on and on about all the features of spruce that I like.

    [00:47:37] Whitney Owens: Yes, we

    [00:47:37] David Sturgess: could.

    [00:47:38] Whitney Owens: Um, yes. And so there is a code that will again be in the show notes, but it's wise practice and that'll give you 20 percent off for your 1st year. If you decide you want to try to use spruce and you do have to put it in at the very beginning. Not later. They'll give you that free trial. You have to put it in then.

    [00:47:55] Whitney Owens: Anyway, did we cover everything?

    [00:47:58] David Sturgess: I think we did your EHR Google workspace for your email phone We're highly recommending spruce Um, your website with, you know, the ability to have somebody come in and really make that good. Yeah. That's, that's going to be your face literally to the world. Um, and then some sort of financial management software like QuickBooks and stay on top of it.

    [00:48:32] David Sturgess: Stay organized.

    [00:48:34] Whitney Owens: That is important. Yeah. Of course, you know, I delegate my QuickBooks out to somebody, so I don't have to do it. That's fine.

    [00:48:40] David Sturgess: If you can delegate it out, that's fine. Um, but it's got to be there because that person might. Move on, or you might get a new account, you know, something like that.

    [00:48:53] Whitney Owens: So, uh, so David, for anybody that's listening, how do they get in touch with you if they're interested in some business consulting?

    [00:49:00] David Sturgess: So David at wise practice, consulting. com is my email. Um, and, um, we can shoot you a Calendly link to schedule, um, a call and get rolling. Awesome.

    [00:49:16] Whitney Owens: Well, I appreciate you coming on the show. This has been super helpful and I think it'll be a good episode for especially people in those beginning phases of solo practice, you know, kind of figuring it out or even group practice owners that maybe aren't happy with what they're doing.

    [00:49:28] Whitney Owens: Yeah, absolutely. This will be helpful for them. So thank you again.

    [00:49:33] David Sturgess: Absolutely. Thank you.​

    [00:49:54] Whitney Owens: Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the Sitecraft Podcast Network, a collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives. To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to sitecraftnetwork.

    [00:50:15] Whitney Owens: com. The Wise Practice Podcast represents the opinions of Whitney Owens and her guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and the content should not be taken as legal advice. If you have legal questions, please consult an attorney.

    ​

James Marland
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