After struggling with high no-show rates and cumbersome patient engagement processes, Skin Cancer & Cosmetic Dermatology Center found a solution that delivered immediate results. In this interview, CEO Nic Chung shares how NextPatient's intuitive platform not only drastically reduced no-shows but also helped the practice collect more than $60,000 in just 10 days through text-to-pay — all while working "in the background in a very humble and effective way."

NextPatient customer spotlight: Skin Cancer & Cosmetic Dermatology Center

• 30+ providers

• 10+ locations across Northwest Georgia and the Tennessee Valley

• NextPatient solutions: Patient Self-Scheduling, Waitlist, Recalls, Smart Reminders, Digital Check-In, Text-to-Pay

Read our interview with Nic Chung, CEO

What challenges led you to seek out NextPatient?

We had significant issues with our previous patient engagement platform. The process was incredibly manual and cumbersome — we had to upload patient contact lists from our EHR, then patients would respond with codes to confirm or cancel appointments. This generated PDF reports that our front office staff had to manually re-key into our system.

We were also struggling with high no-show rates, sometimes exceeding 20% at some locations, which is well above the industry standard for dermatology. Even with an aggressive no-show charge policy, it wasn't solving the problem.

Additionally, our patient portal was very unusable. It didn't effectively communicate to patients about digital intake requirements before appointments, and lacked good functionality for document uploads and form completion.

What made you choose NextPatient over other solutions?

We evaluated many options by exploring the Nextech partner page and narrowed our shortlist down to NextPatient and one other vendor. NextPatient stood out for several reasons:

First, the human-to-human aspect was excellent. The sales team, particularly Patrick Riley, was polite, persistent, and patient through numerous demos. He always had answers to our questions or would find the information internally if needed.

Another major green flag was working with Cory Hoover, who deeply understood our pain points and knew our EHR system inside and out. This was refreshing after being passed between salespeople at other companies.

After having a negative experience with a competitor whose solution involved expensive physical kiosks that proved cumbersome for patients, we reached back out to NextPatient. They welcomed us back warmly with an immediate focus on implementation.

The handoff from sales to implementation was seamless — we maintained our relationship with our salesperson while Jess, our account manager, took excellent care of us. The implementation process was smooth, with clear guidance on system settings and configurations.

Overall, NextPatient delivered on everything they promised in an honest, affordable way that demonstrated their care for their product.

What specific features have been most valuable to your practice?

Text-to-pay has been exceptionally valuable. Before implementing it, we used a vendor that required manual list uploads and sent paper statements to patients at regular intervals. By the time patients received these statements, the information was often outdated due to new appointments or payments, leading to increased call volume from confused patients.

NextPatient's text-to-pay solution has been a game-changer, especially with its Nextech Pay integration. Patients receive real-time updated balances via text with a simple payment link. On the back end, payments automatically post to the oldest date of service, eliminating manual reconciliation.

We rolled out text-to-pay just two weeks ago and have already collected over $60,000 in old and current balances.

Have there been any unexpected benefits?

The agility of the solution for making on-the-fly changes has been surprisingly beneficial. Having an account manager who serves as a one-stop shop, understands the solution thoroughly, and provides immediate access via a booking link has been invaluable.

We receive white-glove service — our questions are answered immediately, and requested changes to scheduling or reminders happen same-day. The team is transparent about system limitations while helping us understand all available options to better accommodate our operations.

The combination of a personable, responsive, and agile solution backed by an equally responsive team has been key to our success.

What advice would you give to other practice leaders considering a similar solution?

Focus on the KPIs that matter. Many patient engagement platforms sell features that seem valuable but don't actually impact the business goals of a medical practice, which ultimately are:

• Reducing no-show rates
• Improving collections
• Implementing a system that's easy for your team to use

This is especially important for practices our size, where we don't have many tech-savvy staff members, and there's limited time for training if the solution isn't intuitive or well-supported.

Concentrate on the main business problems you want to solve through patient engagement and avoid being sold unnecessary features that don't add value or save time. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

I appreciated that NextPatient never overcommitted or oversold their capabilities. They were clear about exactly what they could solve: driving down no-show rates, maximizing resource utilization through self-service booking and effective appointment management, and improving collections through better integration with payment systems.

Was there a specific moment the value of NextPatient became clear to you?

It was probably around demo number 10! Seeing the same functionality repeatedly helped me realize how simple and well-built the tool actually was.

It was like finding marriage material rather than a hot date. The first time you see NextPatient, you might think, This is it? because you're not being love-bombed with promises of features that can't be delivered. It's straightforward: "Here it is. Here's how it works. Here's the flow." After seeing it multiple times, I realized, This makes a lot of sense.

How has NextPatient impacted your team's daily workflow?

It has simplified and streamlined workflows so seamlessly that the team hardly notices the change. Unlike many vendors who try to create their own ecosystem or app to increase stickiness, NextPatient works effectively in the background without constantly demanding attention.

Our previous platform insisted staff work from their dashboard instead of our PM system, which created problems. Staff were constantly switching between windows, so we had to purchase dual monitors for our front offices. This vendor pushed expensive hardware and kiosks, and wanted to sell us on more things — all of which quickly became a poor decision.

With NextPatient, our no-show rate has decreased, call volume is down, patients are using online scheduling, collections have improved, and payments post automatically — all while our staff barely notices the system working.

Is there anything else you'd like to share about your experience?

Culturally, I really appreciate that NextPatient takes pride in their product. In my conversations with NextPatient’s cofounder Kyle, it's clear that they're not focused on scaling as quickly as possible just to sell to private equity or the highest bidder.

They genuinely care about their product quality and the service they provide. This resonates with private practices like ours that are facing the challenges of private equity rollups and hospital consolidation.

Private practices want to maintain independence, quality, and uniqueness, and it's refreshing to work with a vendor that shares these values. Big kudos to the NextPatient founders and team.