Under One Roof: How This Clinic Tackled Their Business Challenge with a Single Platform

Stephanie and Matthew Trowbridge opened the Range Urgent Care facility in Asheville, NC in 2017. Long before the facility even treated its first patient, the Trowbridges knew that they would need to devise a unique business strategy to meet the evolving needs of Asheville’s population. Over 50% of Asheville’s population growth between 2010 and 2015 has been driven by people under 35, an audience with drastically different healthcare expectations and preferences. This demographic is tired of the traditional healthcare model - long wait times, expensive copays, and sterile environments. Seeing this as an opportunity, the Trowbridges implemented online appointment scheduling, a flat fee model,and a welcoming coffee shop aesthetic in their clinic. Unsurprisingly, the Trowbridges were able to cater to Asheville’s millennials better than any other care facility in the region.

Of course, the story doesn’t end there. Despite attracting new patients, the Range team still had to tackle a litany of other challenges that come with running an urgent care clinic like marketing, EMR, reputation management, and billing just to name a few. They were looking for a technology solution that would give staff the bandwidth to consistently provide a superior experience to patients. Indeed, Range needed a comprehensive technology platform that would manage all their practice’s needs. That need led them to DrChrono.

Because the Trowbridges were looking to really modernize urgent care in Asheville, DrChrono turned out to be a particularly good fit. DrChrono’s comprehensive platform (with EHR, RCM, scheduling, and billing, just to name a few) enabled the Trowbridges to spend far less time on simple and repetitive tasks, and far more on quality patient care. The best part was that patients noticed and appreciated the difference, starting from the moment they checked in.

We got a chance to speak to Matthew Trowbridge about the experience he and his team designed for Range patients. “We have the iPad check-in Kiosk where patients check-in to their scheduled appointment or check-in for a walk-in appointment,” Dr. Trowbridge said, “We don’t have a receptionist so it’s a semi self-service. You walk in and interact with the kiosk and our staff member comes in shortly after.” Patients can book an appointment online and see what wait times will be before they even arrive in the clinic, giving them a sense of transparency and control from the get-go. This allowed new patients to immediately book appointments on Range’s website after finding them, avoiding the delay, labor, and possible loss of patients that comes from setting appointments over the phone.

By removing the receptionist, Range automated their check-in and walk-in appointment booking workflows and was able to get patients to providers sooner, a huge boon for an urgent care facility. What’s more, patients are able to easily book appointments online and any new appointments immediately appear on everyone’s calendar, so that all staff can prepare for the day’s tasks.

Range was able to streamline payments, immediately receiving funds while avoiding reconciliations and human error. Furthermore, because providers were able to process payments, it allowed them to seamlessly attend to patients throughout their visit. This gave patients more time in the exam room and more time to ask questions, contributing to Range’s coffeeshop-like experience in which the whole visit feels relaxed and unrushed.

X-rays and lab tests are common at urgent care centers, but sharing results with patients is often cumbersome, as it requires printing them or retrieving them off isolated servers. “We’re able to have the x-rays immediately accessible to every iPad in the clinic,” Dr. Trowbridge said, “so we’re able to mirror what’s on the iPads onto the televisions in the rooms to show patients.“

By granting staff and patients greater access to x-rays and lab results, Range provided staff the flexibility to view results with patients anywhere, get quick second opinions, and decrease overall treatment time. Furthermore, because doctors and staff could chart and view results directly on their iPads, they were able to interact with patients more directly, facing them and making eye contact. When providers don’t finish a clinical note in the treatment room, they can dictate the rest of the note quickly in another room.

“Most of the charting is done by the time the patient leaves the clinic and worst case it’s done by the end of the shift,” Dr. Trowbridge said, “The majority of the time the chart is completed within 30 minutes of the patient leaving the clinic. Typically a provider specifically will spend up to 5 minutes charting and 10 minutes or more of patient interaction.” At Range, patients feel cared for when they notice that doctors are focused and listening and doctors don’t have to worry about whether they’ll complete their charts for the day. In fact, providers at Range spend 50% less time charting compared to the national average.

It can often take doctors a long time to write a prescription and patients don’t always know which pharmacy is most convenient form them. Using DrChrono, Range could choose from common prescriptions with pre-populated patient instructions. To find a pharmacy, Range uses the DrChrono map that shows the pharmacies closest to the clinic or any address.

Furthermore, because of DrChrono’s simple, integrated platform, doctors can look at unfilled prescriptions or refill requests in between visits, view charts, and complete tasks before they even see their next patient. All this shaves time spent on administrative tasks, allowing doctors to focus on quality care for more patients.

Patient Claim Submission and Coding Instead of hiring someone full time to manage billing and coding, the Trowbridges found a clever replacement - their x-ray technicians. In addition to their main role, they “do most of the billing and get a lot of use out of the live claims feed and ERA section,” Dr. Trowbridge said.

With the simple interface of DrChrono’s billing software and its unified design, Range was able to quickly teach x-ray techs to submit and monitor claims. This approach also reduced hold times because it was easy for any team member to quickly check the status of any claim in DrChrono without the need to transfer a call to a billing department. Patients in turn also felt more comfortable because they knew that Range was following up on their claim. Today, Range has submitted close to 80% of its appointments for reimbursement on behalf of patients and has achieved an average clean claim rate of 94.34%.

Using DrChrono, Range Urgent Care has been able to disrupt the way people get healthcare in Asheville. Their unique, experience-focused approach has led to glowing reviews, repeat visits, and a high volume of patients. Without sacrificing the quality of care, the Trowbridges were able to cut time spent on administrative tasks and see more patients than comparable practices. As one Yelp reviewer put it, “Easy online appt reservations and in my case, no wait time once I entered the facility… the folks here give care and show compassion at a time when you really need that kind of attention. Range will become my new “go to” for all things urgent!”

Want to see how DrChrono could revolutionize your practice? You can schedule a private demo or get your questions answered by one of our specialists. Give us a call at 844-569-8628 or email us at demo@ drchrono.com. We would be happy to answer your questions and help you evaluate how DrChrono can create a customizable solution for your practice.