Choosing and Optimizing Your EHR
In this Elevate Your Practice Summit session, Samantha Mabe interviews Lynsey Barrow, the partnerships manager at Practice Better, to discuss selecting and optimizing an EHR system for health and wellness practices. Lynsey shares how Practice Better’s all-in-one platform streamlines client care with features like secure scheduling, customizable templates, client messaging, billing, and more. She highlights essential workflows, such as client onboarding, automated appointment reminders, and referral tracking, which enhance both client management and experience. Lynsey also explains the benefits of using Practice Better’s recent AI charting assistant and client integrations with devices like Garmin and Oura Ring, which add valuable data for a holistic view of client progress. With extensive training resources and customer support, Practice Better is designed to empower practitioners to manage client care seamlessly, improving client satisfaction and retention.
Key Takeaways:
Focus on an EHR system that offers all-in-one management for billing, scheduling, documentation, and secure messaging.
Automate appointment reminders and use secure client messaging to reduce no-shows and improve engagement.
Create essential workflows like client onboarding, scheduling, and progress tracking for a streamlined client experience.
Use Practice Better’s AI charting assistant to improve session focus and documentation quality.
Sync wearable data (e.g., Garmin, Oura Ring) with Practice Better to enhance client insights and holistic care.
Set up training resources and designate a “super user” to ensure staff are using the EHR system effectively.
Meet the Speaker: Lynsey Barrow
Lynsey Barrow is the Partner Manager at Practice Better, where she focuses on helping practitioners streamline their operations and grow their practices. She works closely with experts to provide practical solutions that save time, improve client care, and simplify business management.
Practice Better is an all-in-one practice management platform designed to help health and wellness professionals streamline their workflows and deliver better client care. From scheduling and billing to secure client communication and program management, Practice Better simplifies everyday tasks, freeing practitioners to focus on growing their businesses and supporting their clients. Trusted by solo practitioners and larger teams alike, Practice Better offers the tools needed to manage a thriving practice efficiently.
Transcript
Timestamps
[00:00:30] Introduction to Lynsey Barrow and Practice Better
[00:01:41] Lynsey’s role and an overview of Practice Better
[00:04:10] Key features to look for in an EHR system
[00:06:40] Setting up a system for effective client management and retention
[00:08:04] Benefits of Practice Better’s AI charting assistant
[00:08:50] Essential workflows for a smooth client experience
[00:10:48] Automating Google review requests for consistent client growth
[00:13:46] Training staff and utilizing Practice Better’s support resources
[00:16:35] How Practice Better compares to other EHRs for small practices
[00:18:47] New Garmin and Oura Ring integration for enhanced client data
[00:20:43] Where to learn more about Practice Better’s features
Full Transcript
[00:00:00] Samantha Mabe: You are listening to the next session of the Elevate Your Practice Summit. Make sure to listen along and then go to the Elevate Your practice.co website to follow up with the speakers and get access to the amazing resources they have shared. And don't forget, you can save 30% on your first three months of practice, better@practicebetter.io, and use the discount code LATS 30. I hope you enjoy this session.
Introduction to Lynsey Barrow and Practice Better
[00:00:30] Samantha Mabe: In this session of the Elevate Your Practice Summit, I'm talking with Lynsey Barrow about choosing and optimizing your EHR. Lynsey is the practice manager at Practice Better, where she focuses on helping practitioners streamline their operations and grow their practices. She works closely with experts to provide practical solutions that save time, improve client care, and simplify business management.
[00:00:53] Practice Better is an all in one practice management platform designed to help health and wellness professionals streamline their workflows and deliver better client care from scheduling and billing to secure client communication and program management, Practice Better simplifies everyday tasks, freeing practitioners to focus on growing their businesses and supporting their clients. Trusted by solo practitioners and larger teams alike, Practice Better offers the tools needed to manage a thriving practice more efficiently.
[00:01:21] You can learn more about Practice Better on their website practice better dot I O and you can use the discount code L A T S 30 to save 30 percent off your first 3 months of your subscription.
[00:01:35] Thank you so much for joining me, Lynsey.
[00:01:38] Lynsey Barrow: It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Lynsey's Role and Practice Better Overview
[00:01:41] Samantha Mabe: Can you tell us a little bit about you and how you got started at Practice Better and about what you do there and what Practice Better is?
[00:01:50] Lynsey Barrow: Yeah, so my name is Lynsey Barrow. I am the partnerships manager at Practice Better and I manage our relationships. So Practice Better, just like any other business, really functions on the relationships and the reputation that it has. My job is to make sure that we have strong relationships with organizations within the spaces that we're working in, with business coaches within this space. I get feedback from our partners on just product improvements and just general use.
[00:02:23] Practice Better is an all in one practice management platform. It's designed for health and wellness professionals by health and wellness professionals. And it offers a comprehensive suite of tools that help practitioners manage their practice more efficiently and just provide better care to clients. It's almost more than a software. We've heard it referred to as my favorite co worker. So it's a tool that really understands the demands of your practice and actively works to make managing those demands easier.
[00:02:50] Samantha Mabe: When I was looking for a software to recommend to my clients, I found Practice Better and I loved that it had all of the little pieces that they were looking for. I always advocate, like make sure people can schedule online, make sure you have reminders that are going to go out. And some of the softwares are really difficult to use or They don't have all of those things built in so you're piecing things together, which gets complicated with HIPAA. So I wanted something that I could recommend that had as much in one place as possible.
[00:03:26] Lynsey Barrow: Absolutely. And where we aren't experts, we've partnered with some of the best. So Fullscript, we have a payments process for PB Payments through Stripe. And then also we have a Evexia, Rupa so there's lab ordering supplements. We have a Zapier integration that allows for that MailChimp if people really want to get their marketing set up.
[00:03:48] Samantha Mabe: Awesome.
Key Features to Look for in Your EHR
[00:03:49] Samantha Mabe: So we're talking in this summit about client management and client experience, which I think go hand in hand. I wanted to start by talking about the features that practitioners should be looking for when selecting an EHR system for their practice and how that ties into client management and experience.
[00:04:10] Lynsey Barrow: I would say for practitioners who are looking for an EHR, whether it's a new EHR or they're looking to change their platforms, I would say really think hard about what is going to simplify your day to day workload. Like we just touched on, but one of the most valuable features is having an all-in-one platform. That does allow you to set up and manage things in a central location. In Practice Better, we can do billing, scheduling, client note taking, secure messaging, all in one place, which just keeps things really organized and will definitely save you and your practice time.
[00:04:44] Another big one is a user friendly interface. You want a system that feels intuitive so that you're not spending hours trying to learn it and your clients aren't either. Practitioners have actually told us that Practice Better is the easiest platform that they've used and given that we are designed by health and wellness professionals it's definitely not an accident.
[00:05:04] Samantha Mabe: I've filled out forms on so many different platforms that can be really confusing. And you're like, I don't know which ones I have to fill out and I don't know exactly where this information is going. So having something on the client end, that's really easy for them to Give you the information and make it super simple means you're gonna have happier clients that it's gonna be easier for you to get what you need. And then build that relationship on a strong foundation from the very start.
[00:05:33] Lynsey Barrow: Absolutely. That customization piece, so really being able to tailor that onboarding flow, bring them on, give them relevant information can help you make sure that you're making the biggest difference for them, or you're really making them feel welcomed into the space and giving them the information that they need to succeed.
[00:05:51] Samantha Mabe: Have you noticed any features that are people's favorites in your EHR system?
[00:05:57] Lynsey Barrow: Ooh, good question. I would say the Customization of our protocols and programs. The level of customization that you actually can do in there from branding to linking in those supplement protocols to nutrition protocols. It really is looking at the client holistically and then we have a platform that allows you to communicate and track progress and set up these automations to make sure that they're reaching their goals along the way.
[00:06:28] Samantha Mabe: Awesome.
Optimizing Client Management and Experience
[00:06:29] Samantha Mabe: So how do you recommend that we create a system that works for our practice and makes client management and the retention piece easier?
[00:06:40] Lynsey Barrow: Managing your EHR for you starts with automations. Even just automating appointment reminders is an easy win. You just set it up once and then you'll notice fewer no shows. Clients stay consistent. It saves you time.
[00:06:55] Another is just having the secure messaging. Within Practice Better, that's probably one of our biggest hits as well, especially with clients, is they appreciate that it's really easy, that they can quickly reach out with questions or updates without having to call or email. So again that just makes the system work for your practice in a more natural conversational flow instead of having those appointments.
[00:07:17] Another handy tool is what we talked about the customizable templates. Having templates for your session notes or protocols ready to go means you're consistent across your clients. It saves you time on documentation. We recently released a charting assistant. It's fully HIPAA compliant, but the feedback that we get is that practitioners love it, because it takes the notes during the session so that the practitioner is actually able to focus and be present with the client.
[00:07:45] And then lastly, I'd say making your system work for you is just really taking advantage of the analytic tools that are offered. Having those insights into client trends or engagement can help you understand what's working, maybe what needs to be improved and just make it easier to retain those clients overall through a better experience.
[00:08:04] Samantha Mabe: I love that you guys have integrated AI. I think that's something we're having lots of conversations about right now. And most of what I hear in this space is about marketing and helping you write your social media posts or do that kind of stuff. But taking advantage of that in making the actual work that you're doing easier and not just the running the business part.
[00:08:27] Lynsey Barrow: Right. Absolutely. And it's funny, I feel like a lot of times we get feedback that they take better notes than I would. It is nice to use AI to your advantage and have it on your side.
Essential EHR Workflows for Your Practice
[00:08:38] Samantha Mabe: So what are some of the workflows that people should be setting up when they are getting started that every practice is going to need to have? And what should they be? And what do they look like?
[00:08:50] Lynsey Barrow: You can think about it as you map what your client journey looks like. So as you're thinking about how your client is coming through your practice and interacting with you, I think no matter What the focus, every practice is going to benefit from client onboarding. So having that smooth intake process, like sending the digital forms clients can fill out ahead of time. Again, just helps them feel prepared. It's also that first intro that you get to them after they've contracted your services really is an opportunity for you to make them feel excited and welcomed.
[00:09:21] Another one is, It's having appointment scheduling and management. Setting up those repeat sessions, for example, allows your clients to book in based on their availability or based on your recurring availability just making it as seamless as possible for your clients to book with you. PracticeBetter actually does a really good job with this. We have a booking widget that you can embed on your website, and then there's also a user app and user portal.
[00:09:47] After that, I'd say documentation and charting. So having a structured process for reporting client progress that helps keep the sessions efficient and makes follow ups more effective.
[00:09:57] The billing and payments aspects. That's a very important workflow. You're going to have to make sure that money's coming in. And we want to make it as easy as possible, especially with your billing insurance or super bills or payment plans, we're able to accommodate all of that. Another key workflow is just making sure that those steps are in place so you can avoid those awkward follow up conversations and just streamline that cash flow.
[00:10:24] And then lastly, I'd say just to bring it full circle, if you rely on referrals, which most businesses do we certainly do just make sure that you have a system to track and nurture those connections. A strong workflow here can lead to consistent client growth through word of mouth. And we actually recently released an automated Google review request that fully takes the cringe out of asking for reviews.
[00:10:48] Samantha Mabe: I loved that announcement because I have seen and talked to so many people about how do we get Google reviews? We know that they're important, but do I put a sign up at my office? Do I have to ask people for it? And to be able to just automate it. And that way you never have to remember, like it's just going out and that is hugely impactful for practitioners. Even more than collecting it personally to use elsewhere.
[00:11:15] And I love all the workflows that you mentioned. We have all had to work with a practitioner of some sort and go and try to schedule and maybe we have to call and then we have to wait for them to email forms. Thinking through kind of those steps that the client has to take and making it the best experience possible sounds like really what we should be doing is like, okay, if I was a client, how would I want to experience this? I want someone to send me forms right away cause if I'm already making an appointment, I'm ready to sit down and just fill it all out. If you send them to me two days before my appointment who knows if I have time to get to it.
[00:11:51] Lynsey Barrow: Absolutely. I agree. I think that's something that's really unique about Practice Better too, is that it is built with the client in mind so the feature sets and the UI and the UX of the platform is Really built for the practitioner on the back end, But then just as easy and simple to use for the client on the front end. And we make it fun, you can track progress in there through different charts. So people are encouraged and actually excited to hop in and see their progress over time and get their notes. So, yeah, definitely agree with you.
[00:12:22] Samantha Mabe: Another thing that I noticed is Practice Better is just prettier than a lot of the other ones. It depends on what works best for your business, but people do appreciate that as well. This is easy to use. It looks nice. It doesn't feel like old and clunky.
[00:12:37] Lynsey Barrow: Absolutely. I think people are going to judge a book by its cover, so to speak, but they're going to judge your product Based on what they're seeing. And I think to have a professional, easy, clean looking software is just going to elevate your practice too. And people are going to think that same thing like, Oh, this looks really great. I'm excited, not this is funky. And are they even going to get this? Do I have to mail this in?
[00:13:01] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. And I think also having the billing as part of that is so important and being flexible on what kinds of payments, if you take insurance, however you do that, because you're not limited by one thing or another, and then having to think about changing platforms. We really want to start off with something that's going to be able to grow with us.
[00:13:23] Lynsey Barrow: Absolutely. What we do here that like switching over kind of that payment processing piece and just moving data from one system to another is a huge pain point and a huge roadblock for people. So we've made that process really easy. We do importing of information for practitioners so they can not have to think about that piece and then get set up on Practice Better starting fresh, if you will.
Training and Support for Practice Better
[00:13:46] Samantha Mabe: If you have a staff or team members, how do we make sure that they are also effectively using whatever EHR that we have in place?
[00:13:56] Lynsey Barrow: Yeah, so training is all about setting up that foundation. When you have a new program that you're rolling out, a new platform, just keeping the momentum going, being excited about it.
[00:14:07] For us that starts with just a comprehensive initial training session, so Practice Better offers a ton of different options Just meets people where they're at whether it's a step by step tutorial that you can walk yourself through we do deep dive sessions on different aspects of the platform Or different topics which makes it really easy for team members to get up to speed and then we do also have weekly trainings, so, Every other week we do a beginner's class to Practice Better so that's just a time for people who can come in. It's like an open office hours. And then the other week we have those open office hours. Just if people have questions, they can come in and ask those to our reps.
[00:14:48] I would say also just having resources available. So that training piece is so important, but something that we get a lot of feedback about is our practitioners love the private community that we have. And that's where those trainings take place. That's where those step by step guides live.
[00:15:03] But we also have a search option built into the platform. As you can search through your own database for information, if you have a question on something, you can search it and then you can actually look through our resource center for it so it makes it really easy to find what you're looking for while you're in there.
[00:15:21] Another thing that we've seen success with for group practices is assigning more or less a super user. So having someone within the practice who can help, whether it's someone who's more tech savvy or raises their hand or is interested in it or is leading the charge, having someone within your team that you can go to for quick questions also encourages like that peer to peer learning and sometimes that's the best insights come from seeing how someone else is using the platform.
[00:15:49] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, I like that idea. My husband is a teacher, and he's the go to person in his department for all tech related questions, because sometimes that's easier and faster than going to the tech person or joining a training. And you could keep it within, like, how are we using this? If you have one person who understands it and they're always the go to, then everybody's going to be consistent across the board of, this is the way that we've set this up. There might be other options, but we want to keep things consistent in our practice so that if Somebody has to leave or somebody has to cover somebody, it's really easy to get in there and figure out how things are supposed to work because you're not like everybody just do whatever you want.
[00:16:31] Lynsey Barrow: Right. Absolutely. I think that's so key.
Comparing Practice Better to Other EHR Systems
[00:16:35] Samantha Mabe: I know we've covered some of the features of Practice Better specifically, but How does your platform compare to other EHR systems that are out there, especially for solo practitioners or people with small teams, which are probably the people listening and how does what you do stand out? Or maybe how do they pick the right option for them?
[00:16:58] Lynsey Barrow: Practice Better. stands out to me for a few reasons. And I think that they just go right to the heart of what practitioners need. Everything that we've discussed, but designed specifically for health and wellness professionals, not just medical practices. The majority of our users are going to be those solo practitioners, small group practitioners that are nutritionists, dieticians, functional medicine practitioners, holistic nutrition consultants. So we've really got a platform in mind just to service this industry. Every feature that we've built within has those unique workflows and this specific use case in mind. And it is truly all in one so you don't need multiple platforms.
[00:17:40] I think ease of use is another big one, so we've touched on that too, but people do often tell us that it's a very intuitive platform, which just means there's less time learning the software, more time focusing on clients and it feels like a tool that's working with you and not something that you're working against to tame.
[00:17:59] We're also continuously improving based on feedback from our practitioners. So I love that we have such a pulse on what's going on that the platform evolves to meet the needs. So one thing, for example, we just released is a Garmin and Oura Ring integration, so this is been awesome. We just released it this week, actually this is october 30th. But this allows for a more holistic view of clients So rather than clients having to manually upload their sleep or workout information, it's just can automatically sync. And that's something that's enhancing the journal feature that we have, which is also very unique and that gives practitioners and clients a deeper look into their progress by enabling data driven insights that people can see and appreciate.
[00:18:47] Last but not least is our customer support. So having a dedicated support team that understands your practice, it makes it really easy to reach out and get your questions answered and I think that's really where we make a difference.
[00:19:01] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. And I love that it is finding a system that's designed for smaller practices, that's not the giant doctor's office down the street. But you are building a relationship with these clients long term and so having them even do something like sync up their Garmin and their Oura Ring, that's not something I would have ever considered my doctor asking me to do, but I'm sure that it's so helpful for the practitioners and then it makes it really easy for clients to give them that extra information.
[00:19:33] It's those pieces that can make practitioners stand out because they are able to make that super easy. And then you're able to go in and look at all of that data and come to your client and say, this is what I've observed. And you have just more of that relationship that doesn't feel as transactional because it's all built into a system that you're not having to do a ton with once it's set up, but it creates like the really good experience brings people back and makes you easy to refer.
[00:20:08] Lynsey Barrow: It allows you to scale that quality of client care, which is usually the hardest part is you have a standard or a level of care that you want to deliver, but it can be a lot and a lot of practitioners, especially the small and medium business owners we work with didn't get into the business to be business owners. They got into this business to be caretakers or to help people live better lives. And Practice Better does a really good job of stepping in and filling in those gaps and then making it easy for them to do what they want to do, but just to scale that and to keep it high quality.
Connect with Lynsey
[00:20:43] Samantha Mabe: If people are interested in learning more about Practice Better and All of the features, where can they go to find that out?
[00:20:51] Lynsey Barrow: They can go to practicebetter. io. That's our website. From there you can filter by what kind of practitioner you are. We'll help you navigate through to see the different features that are for you. We also have interactive demos on our website too, which are really great. So that allows you to step inside the software and click through and see it how you're going to be using it as a user.
[00:21:13] Samantha Mabe: I love that. I just had someone asked me to look at another software and having something that you can actually click around and you're not watching someone else do is so powerful,
[00:21:23] Lynsey Barrow: Absolutely.
[00:21:25] Samantha Mabe: Thank you so much for joining me and for walking us through what we should be looking for in an EHR and how we can use it to enhance our client management and experience.
[00:21:36] Lynsey Barrow: My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:21:45] Samantha Mabe: Thank you so much for joining me for this session of the Elevate Your Practice Summit. If you enjoyed it, make sure to go to the elevateyourpractice. co website in order to connect with the speaker and get access to the free resources they mentioned in their session. You can also share the summit with any of your friends in the health and wellness space and send them to the website elevate your practice dot co. You can get 30 percent off your first three months of practice better at practice better. io and use the code L A T S 30.
