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Advanced Pain Care (APC) is a leading chronic care provider based in Austin, Texas, conducting nearly 120,000 appointments annually. The organization advocates the appropriate and effective management of chronic pain through a multi-disciplinary approach. Its physicians’ acute and chronic pain care specialties include back pain, hip pain, post-surgery pain and much more.
Specializing in chronic pain management, APC’s primary goal is to relieve the suffering of thousands of patients in pain. As many of these individuals experience ongoing discomfort, it’s no surprise they are eager to connect with their provider as quickly as possible, seeking prompt responses and convenient scheduling options.
Recognizing the need to better meet these patient expectations, the APC team aimed to create a simpler experience that would ultimately lead to greater outcomes. According to Chelsea Simon, Chief Operating Officer of Advanced Pain Care, “Simplicity for patients and staff was key” when first embarking on the journey.
To begin, the team identified several challenges – and opportunities – to enhance administrative processes and operations, which are critical for delivering optimal patient care. These include:
Collectively, these challenges contributed to reduced staff efficiency and lower patient satisfaction levels. Upon identifying these issues, the team recognized the need to transition to more a robust system that would simplify life for both staff and patients, while also aiming to consolidate vendors and reduce costs.
APC initially began working with Artera to utilize conversational messaging and appointment reminders. Over time, the organization has expanded its suite to include several new products:
Artera Harmony to streamline all communications via one trusted phone number through Artera, helping with cybersecurity issues and ease of use.
“As IT Director, my main goal is to reduce cybersecurity vulnerabilities. New software always introduces new vulnerabilities, so the major advantage of using Artera for texting is that you can use your main line for patient outreach – this ensures patients only communicate through this trusted channel, protecting them from social engineering attacks. Streamlining communication through Artera gives me peace of mind from a security perspective.” – AJ Correa, Director of IT, APC
Artera ScheduleCare for online scheduling, replacing its previous scheduling platform with one that had a bidirectional integration with Athena, and allowed seamless, automated live scheduling. According to Correa, when the Artera teamintroduced their suite of tools – which included ScheduleCare – it was a “huge relief” as they were seeking these exact solutions. “We need our tools to integrate with our EHR and Artera, which was a main feature of this new suite.”
Artera Intake & Payments to streamline the patient intake process up front and facilitate smooth payment transactions.
As far as the implementation process for this new suite of tools, APC not only collaborated regularly with Artera representatives to get questions answered but also leaned on each other internally to ensure a smooth transition, working with department heads and subject matter experts from IT, staff development, referrals management and more. With weekly meetings dedicated to these projects, the APC team successfully met its target go-live dates.
“There were several benefits to adopting Artera ScheduleCare and Artera Intake and Payments, including vendor consolidation – one contract, one bill – knowing that our staff will continue to only use one platform to communicate with patients, keeping it efficient and secure, and for our patients, they would have a premium experience in booking through Advanced Pain Care. These were immediate green flags for us.” – AJ Correa, Director of IT, APC
By focusing on user-friendly online scheduling through Artera ScheduleCare and conversational messaging, APC saw a significant decrease in phone call volume and an increase in automated text messages, in addition to greater patient satisfaction. These changes allowed them to reallocate staff resources more efficiently and improve the patient experience, according to Simon.
These results not only refined APC’s operations and boosted staff efficiency but also greatly increased patient satisfaction and engagement, all while lowering costs. Looking forward, APC plans to continue to leverage Artera’s technologies to further refine its processes and maintain its standing as a top-tier chronic care practice.
