Implementing a new piece of technology no matter how big or small, can always seem like a risk. Migration of data, the time it takes to learn a new set of skills, the price per seat — each factor comes into play when making a decision. PracticePanther has worked hard over the years to erase these common fears through personalized on-boarding, one-on-one training, and a competitive price that can please even the strictest of penny pinchers. We’re proud to be able to equip our customers with an easy transition to our cloud based system and the tools they need to maintain business operations from anywhere in the world, especially when the need arrives in the blink of an eye. We recently sat down with PracticePanther customer Geoff Bretches to discuss his firm’s experience onboarding with legal practice management software just before the onset of COVID-19, and the positive impact it had on their business.
Geoff Bretches of the medical expert witness firm, Medical Equation, and his team were looking for a software solution that could house everything they needed in one place instead of working across different Word and Excel files. Medical Equation offers medical utilization review services and medical legal review services. They provide administrative support to experts in the medical field and medical billing and healthcare finance field. They joined PracticePanther months before the pandemic started, and the transition to working from home was seamless for the whole team.
When moving from a manual and high maintenance system, to PracticePanther’s all-in-one and user-friendly platform, there are many factors to consider such as team adoption and user comfort. Read Geoff’s full interview below to understand how PracticePanther’s easy to use system changed his firm.
Tell us about your role?
Geoff: I serve as both a medical billing consultant with a background in healthcare finance and medical billing as well as serving as the administrator for the medical legal review department.
What was life like before PracticePanther? What pains were you experiencing?
Geoff: Before PracticePanther, workflow tracking was a “bear.” We were trying to manage our process with remedial use of Microsoft products but not in an integrated fashion.
Our tracking was done in Excel and our scheduling and communicating through Outlook. A Word template was used for invoicing and none of this was integrated. This caused an enormous amount of cross checking and manual tracking efforts and was labor intensive and exhausting. It caused errors and tasks to fall through the cracks.
How was your transition to PracticePanther’s cloud based system and did you face any challenges?
Geoff: PracticePanther was widely accepted and with great anticipation by both management and staff. Here was our silver bullet that would handle everything in one place.
The challenge though was to get everyone on board with using all the features. The feedback was that it takes more time to check more boxes and set up more tasks.
The truth is, it may be extra steps in some ways but the results were increased accuracy, timeliness in completing tasks and projects, and overall communication and quality. Errors are greatly reduced, rework has been cut down and administrative research is very quick. Our efficiency was boosted by at least 25% if not more.
What made you choose PracticePanther?
Geoff: We compared PracticePanther to several other software solutions including building from within. We found PracticePanther capable of performing 99% of what we needed to do due to its flexibility and customizations.
It’s also reasonably priced compared to the field of solutions with no upfront capital outlay but a SaaS pricing model that is scalable as we added staff. PracticePanther also allows for API integration with other solutions. PracticePanther is cloud-based and does not require an on-premise dedicated server, and includes data storage, and is secure.
How did PracticePanther and technology as a whole help get you through COVID?
Geoff: PracticePanther was a godsend to get us through COVID-19 and beyond. We had implemented PracticePanther the fall before COVID-19 and had a good experience in the product.
It was the pillar of connection for our entire workflow for the medical legal department. I would go as far as to credit PracticePanther with saving the day for our offsite, work-from-home transition and ongoing operations.
What would you say to attorneys or peers who are still doing things manually?
Geoff: I would encourage groups to consider not just a software solution but to consider PracticePanther. The cost of any software is always big in everyone’s eyes as well as the effort to implement.
The cost to benefit analysis of PracticePanther will show that you will reduce overall cost and free up so much more time for providing services that you will kick yourself for not moving forward with it sooner. Implementation was easy and intuitive. The on-going maintenance and changes are easy to manage and I can even do most of it being a non tech-savvy beancounter.
How do you encourage tech adoption to people who aren’t tech savvy?
Geoff: I encourage step by step transition to a cloud based system. Don’t try to learn every single function at once. Learn the main set of functions that will get you up and running and experiencing good success. Then, once you’re more comfortable, begin to adopt more pieces of the software in your routine. It becomes easier and is always intuitive.
What are some overall goals for your firm over the next 1-2 years?
Geoff: Over the next 1-2 years I would like to see us become more effective with using the client facing aspects of PracticePanther. We are still stepping through the hoops of implementing more as we go. We have yet to run tests with clients with the use of client portal functions and we have yet to use the intake form tool.
What separates you from similar firms?
Geoff: Our quality and accessibility make us stand out. We have become more accessible and are more on top of our process due to PracticePanther. We can answer questions and know where a review product is in a fraction of the time and across a cross-section of staff so that not just one person is in the know about where a review stands in the process.
Making the transition to a cloud based system
If you’re ready to make the transition to our cloud based system and enhance your business performance, like Geoff and his team, you can book a custom demo to explore all the features PracticePanther has to offer today!
