Doxy.me

We’re chatting about Doxy.me and how it’s used at your company. Before that, could you give a brief overview of the company and your role there?

We are a brick-and-mortar company specializing in primary care and women’s health. We focus on providing a full suite of services to our patients, encompassing urgent care, chronic care, and women’s health services. As the chief clinical officer, I’m responsible for overseeing operations in several markets.

What was the need that drove you to purchase Doxy.me?

Although we’re primarily brick and mortar, we understand the importance of providing a great digital experience to our patients in today’s digital health world. We need to be able to connect with our patients wherever they may be. That’s why we sought a platform that would simplify the process of conducting synchronous virtual visits with our patients.

What made you choose Doxy.me?

Doxy.me has been great and super easy for us to use. They allow us to customize it a bit, so we can white label it with our own unique URL. It still uses Doxy.me, but it includes our company name. This way, our patients see our brand name when they log in to the website. Plus, there are a bunch of features that make it really convenient for us. For instance, we can share our screen and receive email and/or text message notifications whenever a patient signs into the waiting room. This helps us when we’re switching between virtual and in-person visits. We can easily see when the virtual visit is ready for us.

What are the use cases that you’re using Doxy.me for now?

We have several use cases. The first one is for new patients who want to have a virtual visit with us. They can sign up through ZocDoc or give us a call to schedule their appointment. The nextoption is for established patients who need an acute episodic visit. They can schedule a time to see one of our urgent care providers during our open hours. Finally, if a patient has already had an in-person visit with one of our chronic care providers and requires follow-up care, they can use Doxy.me as well.

What are some of the features that you’re using across those use cases?

From a clinic operations standpoint, one feature we found extremely helpful was receiving text messages or emails whenever a patient was in the waiting room. This was especially useful because we don’t have set virtual hours. Without this feature, if I’m in a patient’s room, I wouldn’t know if the next patient is ready for me unless I checked the platform. Receiving a ping notification is very helpful with time management.

Another common feature we use is allowing the provider to send the patient a text message or email with the link if a patient isn’t in the waiting room at the time of the visit. This is helpful in reducing no-shows.

Personally, I like using the shared screen feature for patient education. If a patient is describing a rash, for example, and I can’t see it or it’s not present, we can Google a picture and look at it together. I also use it to explain medical processes to patients.

The messaging feature within the app is also handy. If I need to send a patient a link to look at something, or send a GoodRx coupon, I don’t have to use a different patient messaging app or platform. I can do it right within the platform we’re already using. I haven’t had to use it personally yet, but I hear that the group call feature works well.

How does Doxy.me integrate with your scheduling system and your EHR system?

We’re using an off-the-shelf EHR, but we’ve customized it by adding patient and provider portals, so there might be some automatic scheduling happening on the back end that I’m not aware of. For example, when a patient is scheduled, they receive a video link 15 minutes before their appointment. I’m not sure if this process is manual or automated. However, in terms of clinical perspective, there is no integration. I can see that a patient is scheduled in our EMR, but I can’t tell if they’re in the waiting room within the EMR. There is no cross documentation either. When I send a message, it doesn’t automatically get recorded. It’s stored separately.

How would you characterize the overall strengths and weaknesses of Doxy.me?

The biggest strength is that it is really easy to use. Providers needed minimal onboarding, and it also had quite advanced tools that are really intuitive for providers to use. Additionally, it is very reliable. We have never experienced any outages. Overall, the strengths are reliability, ease of onboarding, and its useful features.

As for weaknesses, the biggest one is that it is a separate platform and not directly integrated with the EMR or our homegrown system. Whenever providers have to switch to another platform, it increases their cognitive load, which is a downside.

What would an ideal workflow look like for a virtual visit platform?

So, for me, the ideal scenario would be to have the same features but integrated within the EMR system. Currently, our providers use tablets instead of computers, which makes it a bit difficult to have multiple screens open at once. For example, if you’re having a video visit with a patient and also trying to document, you have to choose between looking at the person or the EMR. The same goes for trying to view lab results or other information. It would be great to have some way to directly overlay the video of the patient onto the EMR, allowing for better cross-functionality. And in the future I imagine it will be standard for AI to transcribe conversations directly which would be very helpful.

How would you characterize Doxy.me as far as bugs or other stability issues?

I didn’t encounter any stability issues. Overall, the feedback from both providers and patients was positive. However, there were a few instances, mostly with new providers, where the patient didn’t show up for their appointment and it wasn’t clear whether we had sent out the appointment link. So it might be helpful to have a feature that gives providers peace of mind by confirming that the link was sent out 15 minutes before the scheduled appointment. This way, we can be certain that it has been sent. Apart from that, I didn’t encounter any other issues.

Why are you transferring from Doxy.me to a product that you’re building in-house?

For us, I would say there are two factors. First, we want to have control over both the patient and provider experience. Although Doxy.me allows some degree of whitelabeling, we prefer our patients to be more comfortable using our own patient-facing app. This way, they become accustomed to interacting with us through our platform. Similarly, we want to make it easier for providers by minimizing the number of platforms they need to use. Our own app will allow us to enhance clinical efficiency by reducing the amount we have to switch screens. For instance, we want to directly take notes that are stored in the patient’s chart and have the ability to toggle between viewing the patient, typing a note, and reviewing labs. We also want to streamline the process of sharing information with patients.

How do you feel about account management and support with Doxy.me?

I was happy with it. We didn’t have to interact with them much, which is a great first step. And when we did, they were responsive. The main thing for me was how easy it was to add a new user when we had a new provider start. It was really simple, and you didn’t have to interact with anyone. I rarely had any issues, maybe only once or twice, and they were always responsive.

How do you feel about Doxy.me from the patient perspective, the overall user experience?

It was fairly seamless. The platform is web-based, making it user-friendly. Occasionally, we had to remind participants to turn on or flip their cameras. There were a few instances where we had to log out and log back in or tell them that they were muted. However, I think these minor issues are to be expected. I don’t think it was necessarily a problem with the platform itself, but rather individuals accidentally denying or accepting settings.

Do you feel like your organization made the correct decision in going on with Doxy.me at the time?

Yeah. When I was onboarding and hiring new providers, it was really easy to teach them how to use it.

Would you recommend any areas of growth for the product?

It’s a great off-the-shelf product. I think it’s especially useful for businesses that are in the early stages or don’t have a brick-and-mortar presence. It’s a great add-on tool that has a lot of functionality and capabilities that we found valuable. And as someone who isn’t technically inclined, I can see that matching what they’ve done would require a lot of work. So my suggestion would be for them to continue building on what they’ve already developed.

I understand that integration can be challenging, but I wonder if there are opportunities for them to improve in that area. Additionally, I think there could be a few small improvements that focus on the provider experience and maximize clinical efficiency. For instance, it would be helpful if they notified us when a message has been sent.

Currently, they don’t store patient reports or names, and there is no way to save phone numbers for future use. This means that if we need to send a second message to a patient before they log in, we have to re-enter their phone number. It would be great if they could address things like that.

Do you have any advice for brick-and-mortar businesses that are figuring out their telehealth strategy?

One thing to consider is how virtual care fits into your workflow and how the tool enables you to provide virtual care. It’s hard to forget a patient is there when they’re physically in front of you, whereas it can be easier to lose that connection when splitting between in-person and virtual visits. Additionally, when mixing both types of visits, people may expect to wait or encounter some friction in person, but not necessarily for a virtual visit. So it’s important to think about how you can use the software and virtual platform to remove barriers as much as possible while also keeping patients informed if you’re running behind schedule or need them to take additional steps like calling in or scheduling another appointment.