GP Insights – A HealthCert Podcast

Comparing neurotoxins: the 4 anti-wrinkle injectables on the market

In this episode of HealthCert’s GP Insights podcast, Paul Elmslie (CEO & Founder of HealthCert Education) talks with Kelly Beasy about the different neurotoxins available in the market. Kelly is a Nurse Practitioner and cosmetic medicine trainer at KB Aesthetix, with 20 years of nursing experience and 10+ years’ experience in the aesthetic industry. Learn more about KB Aesthetix.

In the podcast, Kelly and Paul explore:

• The key differences between the four injectables products in terms of their composition and mechanism of action.
• How these anti-wrinkle injectables differ in terms of onset and duration of action.
• "Tox tips": Recommended injection techniques for achieving optimal results.
• Patient factors that may influence the choice of one anti-wrinkle injectable over another.
• Common side effects and adverse reactions associated with these injectables, and how they can be managed.
• Recommended dosing and dilution.
• Special considerations for using the four product types in combination with other aesthetic treatments and procedures.
• Different dermal filler types, including main players in the market and what product type to use for treating different areas.
• Emerging trends and advancements in the field of anti-wrinkle injectables and fillers that doctors should be aware of.
• How to approach patient consultation and assessment to determine the most suitable injectables product for their needs.
• Patient case studies using a combination of injectables and filler.
• Anatomical areas and facial features where one injectable may be more effective than the others.
• Potential future directions and areas of research in injectables.
• Kelly's tips and advice for doctors on how to enhance their skills and proficiency in using anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers.

A guide to effective practice management | Part 1

In the first episode of a short series on HealthCert's GP Insights podcast, Paul Elmslie and Matt Woollard discuss:

• The key components of effective practice management in a skin cancer clinic or general practice. This includes how to schedule appointments efficiently, how to streamline patient flow, how to optimise resource allocation, and how to keep comprehensive records.
• How to ensure a seamless patient experience while maintaining efficiency in a clinic setting. This includes the importance of prioritising clear communication, minimising wait times, providing easy access to information, and focusing on personalised care.
• Key challenges you might face in managing a practice and how to overcome them. Challenges can include managing high patient volumes, handling complex cases, and maintaining regulatory compliance. Paul and Matt discuss strategies to address these common challenges, such as implementing standardised processes, leveraging technology, and continuously training staff.
• How to effectively utilise technology to improve practice management in a medical clinic. This includes adopting electronic health records for streamlined documentation, implementing appointment scheduling software, and leveraging telehealth services for enhanced patient access.

Important benchmarks and metrics for general practice success | Part 1

In this episode of HealthCert’s GP Insights podcast, Paul Elmslie (CEO & Founder of HealthCert Education) talks with Chris Smeed, co-creator and CEO of Cubiko, a medical practice platform that provides insights and analysis into all practice data and helps identify areas to improve profitability and efficiency in your practice.

In part one of this podcast series on how to identify and work towards key benchmarks and metrics for a successful general practice, Paul and Chris discuss:

• An overview of the current benchmarks and industry trends that are affecting general practice.
• The key metrics that general practices should track in order to measure their performance and success.
• How practice owners and managers can effectively communicate to their team the impact data can have on patient outcomes.

Profhilo®: The new bio-remodelling injectable treatment

In this latest podcast, Kelly Beasy (KB Aesthetics) talks about Profhilo®, the new injectable treatment that uses hyaluronic acid to improve the appearance of the skin by stimulating the production of collagen and elastin.

In this episode of HealthCert’s GP Insights podcast, Paul Elmslie (CEO & Founder of HealthCert Education) talks about Profhilo® with Kelly Beasy. Kelly is a Nurse Practitioner and cosmetic medicine trainer at KB Aesthetics, with 20 years of nursing experience and 10+ years’ experience in the aesthetic industry. Learn more about KB Aesthetics.

In the podcast, Kelly and Paul explore:

• What Profhilo® is and how it works as a bio-remodelling treatment.
• How Profhilo® differs from other cosmetic injectable treatments.
• The process of administering Profhilo® to patients.
• The benefits of Profhilo® for patients seeking cosmetic enhancements.
• Specific areas of the face and body where Profhilo® is most commonly used.
• When patients can usually see results following treatment with Profhilo®, how long the effects last, and how to prolong them.
• Potential side effects and risks associated with Profhilo® treatment.
• The criteria for determining if a patient is a suitable candidate for Profhilo®.
• Contraindications and precautions that doctors should be aware of before administering Profhilo® to their patients.
• How Profhilo® can be combined with other cosmetic treatments and procedures for enhanced results.
• Downtime and recovery period required after receiving Profhilo® injections.
• Aftercare instructions and recommendations for patients post-treatment.
• How the cost of Profhilo® compares to other injectable treatments in the market.
• The typical patient experience during a Profhilo® treatment session.
• Success stories of patients who have undergone Profhilo® treatment.
• Challenging cases and scenarios Kelly has encountered while administering Profhilo®, and how she addressed them.
• How to stay up-to-date with the latest advancements and techniques related to Profhilo® and cosmetic medicine in general.
• Kelly's advice and recommendations for fellow doctors interested in incorporating Profhilo® into their cosmetic medicine practices.

Practical tips to deliver cosmetic consultations for different ages & skin types

In this latest podcast, Dr Helena Rosengren provides her practical advice on how to deliver a cosmetic consultation and tailor your considerations for different skin concerns and age groups.

In this episode of HealthCert’s GP Insights podcast, we talk about delivering cosmetic consultations with Dr Helena Rosengren, an experienced Skin Cancer and Cosmetic Medicine Physician based in Townsville.

In the podcast, Dr Rosengren discusses:

• The process of a cosmetic consultation and how it differs from a regular medical consultation.
• Specific skin concerns that are more common in certain age groups and how she addresses these concerns.
• How she communicates with patients during a cosmetic consultation to ensure their expectations are aligned with the treatment plan.
• Challenges you might encounter when dealing with patients who have specific skin concerns, such as acne or rosacea.
• Advice for doctors starting out in cosmetic medicine in regards to developing consultation skills.
• How to approach the issue of patient safety during a cosmetic consultation, and what steps you can take to ensure the patient is a good candidate for the treatment.
• Examples of particularly challenging cosmetic consultations she has dealt with and how she addressed the patient’s concerns.
• How to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in cosmetic medicine, and how to incorporate this knowledge into your consultations.

Payroll tax changes for medical practices

Are you prepared to navigate the upcoming changes to payroll tax for medical practices? In this latest podcast, Paul Elmslie (Founder & CEO, HealthCert Education and National Skin Cancer Centres) and Matt Woollard (COO, National Skin Cancer Centres) discuss the proposed changes and share a few tips to possibly safeguard your practice.

In this episode of HealthCert’s GP Insights podcast, Paul Elmslie and Matt Woollard talk about the upcoming changes to payroll tax for medical practices and discuss how they are attempting to weather these changes. Paul and Matt draw on their own experiences from having owned and operated 40+ medical clinics in Australia over the past few decades.

The various State Revenue Offices are taking a view that doctors are now seen as employees rather than sub-contractors, which would mean that the medical practices in which they work must pay payroll tax. The percentage varies between states, but in many states this means an additional cost of 5 per cent. The State Revenue Office can back-date this tax by five years and apply penalties for unpaid taxes. This presents a significant risk to the general practice industry.

In the podcast, Paul and Matt talk about defining the relationship between the medical practice and the doctor, and the body of evidence supporting that doctors are sub-contractors rather than employees.

Matt discusses some of the strategies he has put in place for the National Skin Cancer Centres to put the clinics in an optimal position to potentially weather changes to payroll tax regulations. For example:

• The doctor bills the patient and provides the medical practice with a service fee once per fortnight.
• The medical practice never includes the doctors’ income as an expense on financial statements.
• Agreements are in place that the doctor pays the medical practice for the use of their facilities.
• The doctors set their own fees and close off their appointment books when they don’t want to see patients (in lieu of annual leave).
• The doctors have complete autonomy to bill, consult and treat patients however they choose.

Meeting patient demand & expectations in your medical practice

How can you keep up with patient demand in your medical practice and better meet your patients’ expectations? In this latest podcast, Paul Elmslie (Founder & CEO, HealthCert Education and National Skin Cancer Centres) and Matt Woollard (COO, National Skin Cancer Centres) give their practical advice for keeping up with patient demand and changing perceptions and preferences, based on their own experiences owning and operating 40+ general practices and skin cancer clinics in Australia.

In this episode of HealthCert’s GP Insights podcast, Paul Elmslie and Matt Woollard talk about how you can keep up with patient demand and changing perceptions and expectations in your medical practice. The recent CommBank Health GP Insights Report 2023 highlighted interesting trends about the current and emerging landscape for medical practices in 2023 and beyond. This podcast is part 3 of 3 episodes focusing on relevant findings in that report. Paul and Matt have owned and operated 40+ medical clinics in Australia over the past few decades, and here they discuss some of what they have learned.

Keeping up with patient demand

In the podcast, Matt says, “Without realistically increasing the number of doctor hours you have in your practice, the only way to keep up with increased patient demand is through workplace efficiencies or changing your workflow to allow you to be able to treat or manage more patients in the same amount of time without putting patient safety at risk.

“A nurse can help increase the doctor’s productivity. You might work with a nurse and a tag-team environment where you triage patients and work across maybe two or three different consultation rooms.

“You might also look at what tasks a doctor is doing that could be moved on to a nurse. I think there’s a lot of opportunities inside general practice to really streamline how a general practice runs so that a practice can keep up with demand without increasing the number of doctors they have for that demand.”

Optimising practice productivity

Utilising availably technologies is a great way to minimise the amount of “human work” required from your clinic, thereby reducing workload, speeding up workflow, and optimising efficiency. An example of this includes using online booking systems, as more patients doing online bookings equals less phone calls at the front desk, allowing the staff to focus on serving the patients that are in front of them.

Another example is online registration forms so that patients can complete their personal information before they even arrive at the practice for their appointment. In addition, there is software available that can automatically send patients’ results to them so that they don’t need to be recalled back into the clinic to get their results.

Matt suggests that doctors should sit down and look at the tasks they are doing every day “that are a waste of your training and experience” that could be done by somebody else so that the doctor is freed up to spend more time seeing patients. It’s also important to ask whether any steps could be cut out of a process to make it faster.

Managing patients’ changing perceptions and expectations

In the second half of the podcast, Paul and Matt take an in-depth look at some of the most common patient expectations that medical clinics should strive to meet in order to satisfy their patients’ changing needs and wants. They also discuss the impact of social media and Google reviews and how patients’ experiences influence their word-of-mouth referrals and public feedback, and much more.

 

Attracting and retaining staff in your medical practice

How can you attract and retain the right staff for your medical practice? In this latest podcast, Paul Elmslie (Founder & CEO, HealthCert Education and National Skin Cancer Centres) and Matt Woollard (COO, National Skin Cancer Centres) give their practical advice for hiring staff for your clinic, based on their own experiences owning and operating 40+ general practices and skin cancer clinics in Australia.

In this episode of HealthCert’s GP Insights podcast, Paul Elmslie and Matt Woollard talk about how to attract and retain the right staff in your medical practice. The recent CommBank Health GP Insights Report 2023 highlighted interesting trends about the current and emerging landscape for medical practices in 2023 and beyond. This podcast is part 2 of 3 episodes focusing on relevant findings in that report. Paul and Matt have owned and operated 40+ medical clinics in Australia over the past few decades, and here they discuss some of what they have learned.

Matt further recommends some job posting boards and advertising channels that he finds most effective for finding the right candidates for a job opening.

In terms of being an attractive employer, Paul says it’s important to manage staff expectations. For example, many staff are looking for flexibility in their roles these days so they can find a work-life balance, so it’s good to do what you can to accommodate their specific needs.

The podcast then moves on to discuss how to optimise onboarding of a newly recruited staff member at your clinic. Paul and Matt stress it’s important to have a structured onboarding process for new staff, and an effective, detailed training program and resources so they have the best chance of success.

Further, the podcast looks at how you can support and celebrate your staff with recognition and validation during their time with you.

How to build sustainable billing in a medical practice

Explore how to build a sustainable billing structure in a medical practice – with a focus on managing the cost of the business and taking advantage of opportunities to grow revenue – in this latest podcast with Paul Elmslie (Founder & CEO, HealthCert Education and National Skin Cancer Centres) and Matt Woollard (COO, National Skin Cancer Centres), who discuss their own experiences owning and operating 40+ general practices and skin cancer clinics in Australia.

In this episode of HealthCert’s GP Insights podcast, Paul Elmslie and Matt Woollard talk about building a sustainable billing structure for a medical practice. The recent CommBank Health GP Insights Report 2023 highlighted interesting trends about the current and emerging landscape for medical practices in 2023 and beyond. This podcast is part 1 of 3 episodes focusing on relevant findings in that report. Paul and Matt have owned and operated 40+ medical clinics in Australia over the past few decades, and here they discuss some of what they have learned.

In the podcast, Paul and Matt look into the costs of running a medical business and explore opportunities to grow revenue, based on their own experiences.

Costs of running a medical business

The fixed costs of running a medical clinic (such as the rent, electricity, phone and internet, etc.) are usually difficult to change. However, two substantial costs of running a medical clinic that can be adjusted are wages and consumables.

Matt says that you can reduce the cost of wages while still paying your staff appropriately by maximising staff efficiency. (For example, you might investigate whether the front desk can be managed by two staff instead of three on certain days.) As wages are the greatest cost to a business, Matt recommends looking at wages monthly to determine your wage costs as a percentage of your service fee to get a better idea of how you are tracking.

In addition, Matt recommends doing a complete review of all your clinic’s consumables. You can look at what you’re using, what your doctors prefer to use, and what’s affordable, and tighten down your list to a much smaller list of products. This gives you the opportunity to get a competitive quote, standardise and bulk buy your consumables, and makes stock-take simpler.

Opportunities to grow revenue

You need to earn more money than you spend in order to build a sustainable practice, and sometimes this means increasing your billing to better support the practice and maintain the services your provide.

Paul says that if you are a bulk-billing clinic looking to move into private billing, it’s important to introduce this in small steps. (For example, starting out with only a small out-of-pocket fee and then gradually increasing this to where it needs to be.) If you’re going to change what you’re charging, you need to ensure your staff are trained to have those conversations with patients on the frontline so there are no breakdowns in communication.

Paul and Matt further discuss the pros and cons of bulk-billing and the current landscape for Medicare rebates.

Practical tips for performing lip filler treatments

In this latest podcast, Dr Helena Rosengren provides her practical advice for performing lip filler treatments, with a focus on achieving subtle and natural-looking results, managing patient expectations, dealing with potential complications, and more.

In this episode of HealthCert’s GP Insights podcast, we talk about lip filler with Dr Helena Rosengren, an experienced Skin Cancer and Cosmetic Medicine Physician based in Townsville.

In the podcast, Dr Rosengren discusses:

1. What lip filler products are made from and how they work.
2. Which patient demographics typically seek lip filler treatments, and what kind of concerns patients are hoping to address.
3. Patients she avoids treating with lip filler.
4. How to plan out lip filler treatment, including what’s involved in the initial consultation and the planning process.
5. Top tips for helping practitioners achieve a natural and subtle look rather than the dreaded “duck lips” look.
6. How she deals with patients wanting more lip filler against her recommendations, including how she addresses these concerns and manages patient expectations.
7. Adverse events a practitioner should be aware of before performing lip fillers on a patient.
8. How to manage potential complications with lip filler treatments.
9. Advice for practitioners interested in starting out offering lip fillers, and how can they get started.
10. The challenges a practitioner might encounter when they start out offering lip fillers, and her advice for overcoming those challenges.