NextPatient customer spotlight: Cascade Eye & Skin Centers

• 45+ providers
• 7 locations across western Washington
• NextPatient solutions: Patient Self-Scheduling

After being burned by previous vendors who overpromised, Cascade Eye & Skin Centers started small with NextPatient, implementing patient self-scheduling for one department. With a clear patient-first approach, CEO Amber Gilroy shares how NextPatient seamlessly manages the practice's most complex appointment types, boosting its reputation, eliminating manual processes, and setting the foundation to bring even more value to patients, staff, and providers.

What challenges led you to seek out NextPatient?

Some of the challenges we had were around the ability for patients to easily schedule certain types of appointments. With our previous solution, we could facilitate some appointment types, but there were certain aspects for some of our departments — cosmetics is a big one — where we just couldn't find a solution. We weren't able to offer online scheduling for those areas at all. That was one of the main reasons I was looking for an option that would allow us to do online scheduling across all of our different departments.

What stood out to you about the implementation process?

The implementation process was fairly easy and straightforward. We had to map out which areas would go live with online scheduling first and where we wanted to focus our efforts. After we started going live, we found a couple of small functionality issues with our system, so there were ongoing tweaks needed. NextPatient was right there at the table with ModMed, our EHR, and Klara, another company we use, to make sure the process flowed smoothly and that everything was properly represented on our website.

There were some instances where things would change behind the scenes, which was more on our web developer's side, so we had to work through those hiccups. But overall, it was fairly easy. I would say within a month we were pretty much up and running.

How has NextPatient impacted your team's daily workflow?

We initially implemented NextPatient in just one department — the one we struggled with the most — where everything was very manual before NextPatient.

Now, our team gets automatic prompts whenever a patient schedules online. They're no longer having to send information back and forth manually to patients; the patients enter all their information themselves. The system can also take credit card payments, which we weren't able to do before. NextPatient has taken a lot of the work and burden off our team, patients can book anytime they want without having to wait, and our volume in that department has really increased.

Have there been any unexpected benefits?

One thing I wasn't expecting was that some of our other providers who are still using the old online scheduling have noticed how nice the experience looks for providers using NextPatient. I think there's growing interest in expanding how we're using online scheduling.

I thought the transition would be a little clunkier and harder for us to get used to, but it's really been very easy.

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

The advice I would give is to really do your due diligence. We looked at several different competitors. For us, one thing that was really appealing about NextPatient was how nice the patient experience is. We approached it from that lens — not looking at what would be easiest for our scheduling team or the operational side, but what the patient would want to see.

It was very easy for us to implement; it wasn't really challenging. But the most important thing for me was: What is our reputation? And can we improve our reputation by having something like this that makes it easier for patients to come see us?

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

There were actually two moments when I realized, I think this is what we need to move ourselves forward.

The first was when NextPatient showed us what they've been able to produce for other practices similar to ours. When I compared that to what we had online — our offerings and the manual forms patients had to fill out — I thought, This is what I want our patients to see. This is what I want our patients to think about us.

The other piece was when they showed the ROI. I dug deep and asked a lot of hard questions. I had our CFO test the sales rep's assumptions, and I think they were very accurate. That helped me build the case for investing in NextPatient. Yes, it's better for the patients, but it's also going to be better for our business as a whole.

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

One thing that really stood out to me is how many different areas of our business could be positively impacted by a product like this. We haven't even scratched the surface. We still have features like Waitlist and others that I'm really excited to implement.

We've been burned in the past by vendors making promises they couldn't deliver on, which is why we wanted to start small and see how it worked.

I've been very happy with the product we have, and I have no doubt that, in the future, we'll continue to expand the offerings because it makes so much sense for patient flow and staffing. We'll be able to minimize many of the manual processes our staff currently handles. Plus, having everything in one system versus trying to find separate systems for waitlist management and other functions is a huge advantage.

I've been really pleasantly surprised, and I'm excited to continue growing our relationship and what we can offer our patients and our team.