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Four Easy Steps to Setting-up a Website for Your Practice

Creating a website for your practice is like setting up a virtual office for clients to visit.  While visiting your website, prospective clients can learn more information about your approach to nutrition and how to schedule appointments. However, many dietitians struggle to balance the administrative aspects of their business and their work with clients.

How can busy dietitians build a website with little tech experience, investment or time? It’s easier than you might think.

Choose a Domain Name

The most important task of setting up a practice website is to purchase your domain name. This is the web address your clients (and search engines) will look for when trying to choose a dietitian. If you don’t have a name for your practice, you can also use your own name. Many website development platforms such as Wix, Ukit and Weebly allow you to purchase your domain address at the same place you create your website.

Purchase Web Hosting

While it sounds super technical, your web host is the place on the internet your website will live in. There are a number of reputable businesses who host your domain for little cost. These companies may also assist you when it’s time to build your website. While making a choice can be a little overwhelming, look for a company that has positive reviews, rock-solid uptime and provides quick, ongoing support for any issues that will come up. It is also worth noting most website builders also provide hosting as part of their packages.

Build your Website

This is not as hard as it sounds! These days you don’t need to be able to code to build your own site. There are many website builder sites available that allow you to design a website quickly and easily, no experience required. You will be able to choose a website design for a selection of premade templates. The template can then be customized with a few clicks of the mouse. You can add or remove pages, choose graphics which represent your practice and write the copy which will reside on your pages. In most cases, this whole process can be accomplished in a single afternoon. Website builder sites are also very affordable, often offering free base subscription plans.

There are many website builders to choose from popular options include Wix, Squarespace and Weebly. For a review of various options, we recommend the following site – The Best Website Builders.

Setting-Up Your Online Scheduler

Electronic medical records and practice management solutions like Kalix come with HIPAA Compliant online scheduling features that allow you to add a scheduling widget to your practice’s website so that you can accept bookings 24/7. All bookings will sync with your Kalix appointment calendar, client files, and automated reminders. The scheduling widget will only take minutes to set-up without the need for coding.

At the end of the day, your website is an extension of your practice. Prospective clients will want to find information about you, your methods and will look for easy ways to contact you through the internet. Don’t be afraid to personalize this space to reflect who you are and what you want your clients to accomplish through their work with you!

Using Technology to Manage Your Practice Part 2

This post is by Claire Nichols co-founder and director of Kalix EMR and practice management solution. Claire is an Accredited Practising Dietitian, who has previously worked in private practice as well as clinical dietetics.

This is part 2 in a series of blogs that explore the ins and outs of using technology in private practice setting. It is based my experience working in private practice, as well as the lessons learned while starting my own business, Kalix.

What solutions are there out there?

During this post, I will look at example solutions that can assist with the management of a private practice. I am a bit hesitant about listing actual product names, but you have requested it… so I will…

But first a short disclaimer; I am not associated with any of the solutions listed (except for Kalix that is). This post is not meant to be a complete list. It just contains options I like.  If you are looking to implementing a new technology or solution, investigate and evaluate the different options available first. See my previous blog for things to consider.

Solutions to management your practice

Practice management solutions & electronic medical records

Practice management solutions assist with the management of the day-to-day tasks and operations a private practice.

How they can help:

  • Securely manage and store of sensitive health information
  • Meet government security and privacy requirements (e.g. HIPAA, HITECH, Australian Privacy Principles)
  • Increase the efficiency of client scheduling
  • Automate client appointment reminders to save time and reduce no shows
  • Streamline client, referral and contact management
  • Improve the consistency and efficiency of medical note documentation
  • Simplify invoicing, billing & payments

Example Solutions

Kalix

Kalix is a HIPAA compliant, cloud-based EMR and practice management solution for diettians and allied health professionals. It has range of features including scheduling, automated reminders, client management, electronic documentation, configurable templates, billing and payments.

kalix

 Accounting software

Accounting software are applications that record and manage accounting transactions, invoicing, bank reconciliation bookkeeping and other functionality.

How they can help:

  • Automate data input
  • Instant production of powerful financial and management reports
  • Simplify cash flow management and budgeting

Example Solutions

  • Quickbooks
  • Xero

Social media management

There is more to social media than sharing selfies, baby photos and videos of cute kittens. Social media is almost considered an essential marketing and advertising tool for private practices. if used properly, it can help you to:

  • Connect with new clients and markets
  • Engage and maintain lasting relationships with current clients
  • Re-engage previous clients
  • Establish your expertise and authority in your area of practice
  • Create connections with other health professionals e.g. for referral sources, partnerships and collaborations.

The key phase here is “if used properly”… just participating in social media does not guarantee any of the above.  Social media can easily turn into a time consuming, ineffective and even expensive (if using paid ads) exercise…but the purpose of this blog isn’t to discuss the pros and cons of using social media… or how to achieve success in social media…Technology can help you to achieve success and make your efforts more efficient and effective.

How they can help:

  • Reduce the time required to manage social media accounts by:
      1. Publishing posts to all your social networks at once
      2. Suggesting content for posts
      3. Scheduling posts ahead of time
  • Analyse the effectiveness of your campaigns
  • Monitor your accounts for comments, mentions and reviews of your business

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Example solutions:

Hootesuite

Schedules posts in advance for Tweets, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. Post to all medium simultaneously. Monitor conversations and engagement. Free plan.

Buffer

Very similar to Hootesuite, but shares posts to different social media sthrough the day rather than all at once.

Post Planner

Suggests relevant “trending” content and images for Facebook posts. Provides status updates ideas. Schedules Facebook posts ahead of time.

Tweetdeck

Management tool for Twitter. Allows the management of multiple accounts in one interface. Schedules Tweets in advance. Tracks specified topics, hashtags and sends alerts. Allows the filtering of your feed.

Twitter Analytics

An analytics tool to see info about how many users are viewing and interacting with your tweet.

Email Marketing

Solutions to send bulk email messages to a subscriber list, they are often used to send electronic newsletters and special offers.

Note: despite being a widely used practice, in many countries, it is illegal to send direct email marketing messages without prior consent (Australia – Spam Act 2003, Canada – CASL, and Europe- EU Opt-In Directive). The United States is an exception to this.

How they can help:

  • Bulk sending of emails
  • Provide easy to use email templates
  • Assistance with spam considerations
  • Management of lead development
  • Tracking of email campaign performance

Mailchimp

Email marketing service to send email newsletters, manage subscriber lists, and track campaign performance. Free plan.

Constant Control 

An alternative to Mailchimp, similar functionality.

Web development and hosting services

How they can help:

  • Design your own website without coding
  • Inexpensive compared to hiring a software developer
  •  Ability to edit, modify and update your own website content
  • Includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Personalize your domain name and email

Wix https://www.wix.com/

This web development platform allows users to design their own website using templates and drag and drop tools (it’s really easy to use). Websites are mobile friendly, come with search engine optimization (SEO), social plug-ins (links in with social media accounts), e-commerce (online stores), contact forms, blogs and community forums.

Wix offers free website hosting. You can also purchase your own personalized domain name through Wix (a personalized web address e.g. www.mypracticename.com).  Wix is also partnered with Google to provide personalized email (e.g. name@mypracticename.com) via Google Apps.

Wix has everything you need to set up a website, blog, email address, community forum and even e-commerce (online store). Other options out there include:

Crazy Domains

Internet domain registrar and web and email hosting company. Use to register your personalized domain and email address. Can purchase .com.au and .net.au addresses, which are not available though Wix.

Shopify

An e-commerce platform to create online stores.

Google Apps for Business

Provides email (Gmail), online storage (Google Drive), online calendars (Google calendar) and other tools.

An advantage of choosing Google (for those who live in the USA) is HIPAA compliance. You must sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with Google, for HIPAA compliance to apply to you. BAAs are only offered to Google App customers with an administrator account click here  for  details.

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File Hosting Services

Allows access to files and documents over the internet from different computers, tablets and smart phones.

Unfortunately, many regular file hosting services (e.g. Dropbox, iCloud), do not have the level of security required to meet the health information security and privacy requirements (e.g. HITECH and HIPAA). For this reason, Kalix offers free unlimited file storage. Store unlimited documents against client files, as well as generally against your Kalix account e.g. for client handouts, marketing material.

Conclusion

Well, that’s about all for now…I hope you find this info useful. Remember, if you are looking at implementing a new technology or solution, investigate and evaluate the different options available first.

The clever use of technology can make the difference between having an effective and profitable practice and running one that isn’t… Technology can assist a practice to become more efficient, through automation and the removal of unprofitable and wasted time. But, use technology smartly.

Using Technology to Manage Your Practice Part 1

This post is by Claire Nichols co-founder and director of Kalix EMR and practice management solution. Claire is an Accredited Practising Dietitian, who has previously worked in private practice as well as clinical dietetics. 

Hi everyone, this is part 1  in a series of blogs that explore the ins and outs of using technology in private practice setting.  It is based my experience working in private practice, as well as the lessons learned while starting my own business, Kalix. I do not come from a business background, nor a computing background. Starting Kalix was quite a steep learning curve for me, but overall rewarding experience. I hope you find this post useful.

Private Practice today

Starting a business like a private practice, making it profitable, and then ensuring it remains profitable can be hard, really hard.

It’s a lot of long hours of work and persistence, lots of persistence.

Keeping up with finances, admin, marketing and advertising, and not to mention staying up to date with the latest in your area of practice…well, it’s not a 9-to-5 job, that’s for sure.

But if you achieve success, the rewards are great. You have the freedom to be innovative and creativity, building something that is your very own. You can set your own work schedule and of course the chance to be your own boss!

Some of the duties and responsibilities when running a private practice

Some of the duties when running a private practice

The image above demonstrates some of the duties and responsibilities when running a successful practice.

Even though the completion of these tasks is essential, none of them directly generate revenue.

Many of them are also very repetitive, e.g., admin tasks. And some can be beyond our training as health professionals e.g., legal, accounting tasks, marketing. The time it takes to complete these tasks, actually takes away from time that could be better spent seeing clients and generating money. Therefore, practically speaking, the time you spend completing on these tasks is actually losing you money.

So the question is can technology help?

Can technology help?

The answer is obviously yes.

Technology can help us to work smarter, and more efficiently, avoiding duplication, and wasted time. And we use technology in this way every day. For example, think of PCs, smartphones and global positioning systems (GPS). I don’t know how I could run a business without my smartphone or PC, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this blog for one. And my GPS has saved me countless hours. I use it to find the quickest route when driving anywhere and now I no longer need to look at maps or ask for directions.

Likewise, technology can be used in a private practice setting to improve the efficiency of these non-profitable (but essential) tasks and even automate them, i.e., make them happen automatically without any effort on your part.

You can think of using technology as essentially partnering with experts in a particular area that you lack experience in, e.g., by using Mail Chimp you are accessing their 13 years of experience in an email marketing or by using a practice management program, you are utilizing their expertise in security and data management.

The other side

On the other side of this discussion, I should also mention that it is essential to choose technology smartly. I like this quote by Bill Gates:

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

You do not want to use technology, whether it is the latest mobile device or cloud-based software solution, just because it is new or ‘trendy’. You need to examine the tasks you are looking at improving, whether it’s emailing marketing or scheduling clients’ appointments and consider whether the solution will actually make a difference. For example, if I only drive around my local area and I know my local area quite well, then purchasing a GPS may not be a prudent investment.

Things to consider:

What are the current costs for completing the task e.g. monetary value of time lost, the wages of admin staff, equipment costs? What are the initial costs for investing in this new technology or solution? What are the ongoing costs? The costs of the new technology or solution should not be higher than what you are currently spending.

Why are you looking to adopt this new technology or solution? Do you want to complete a task faster? Are you looking to automate a job that takes up a lot of time? Are you seeking more consistency in how the task performed? You should have a clear understanding of the problem that you’re experiencing. You need to make sure that the technology or solution will solve your problem.

Finally, you need to consider the “human” element. How will your clients respond to this new technology, if you are looking to automate a task that was previously completed by humans, how will this make a difference?

Conclusion

The clever use of technology can make the difference between having a productive and profitable practice and running one that isn’t…Technology can assist a practice to become more efficient, through automation and the removal of unprofitable and wasted time. But remember, use technology smartly.

“The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn’t think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential.” Steve Ballmer

That’s all for now. In part 2, I will discuss actual examples of technology which may help you run a more organized & productive practice.