This article was originally published in Chiropractic Economics on March 17, 2020, and be viewed HERE.

Utilize the latest technologies to your practice’s advantage with chiropractic apps for project and time management and communications

Most chiropractors think their EHR is supposed to do everything to run their practice. When in fact there are tons of applications outside their EHR that you will greatly benefit from using.

After spending nearly two decades running a successful cash-based practice and being the founder of one of chiropractic’s leading technology companies, I thought I would take the time to share with you a whole host of apps we find valuable in running a business.

Chiropractic Apps for Organization and Productivity

• Trello – This is a project management app that is perfect for those of us that are very visual people. You can take one project and break it down into smaller chunks and even into individual tasks. You can even assign people to certain tasks and set due dates. This can be used for anything but imagine this for planning your marketing events, organizing blog posts, planning events in the office, and even duties that need to be covered when someone is out of the office. Trello offers accounts for free. 
• Google Drive/Calendar –  This comes free with your Google account, and teams can use shared folders for documents and spreadsheets. It’s in real-time, so multiple people can be working on a document at the same time and, if necessary, revert back to previous versions. You can set permissions for viewing, editing, etc., and can even upload documents and share them in a folder. Each employee can have their own calendar that is shared with the rest of the team. It’s easy to see who is on vacation, plan out marketing calendars, set up meetings, and include agendas, and link attachments. The best part is you can go straight from your desktop to the app on your phone in real-time. At home and want to check the spreadsheet of the current stats that your office manager updated? Just log in and look.

Team Communication

Team communication is key but not everything needs to be an email. 

• RingCentral – Voice over IP phone systems have been around a long time.  We use RingCentral as its really easy to configure, add lines, forward calls, and more.  It even lets you text from your business line.  There’s really no reason to use old school installed business phone systems anymore.
• Instant Messengers – Sometimes you need to get a message to another person without speaking out loud or running to the other side of the office. We have tried tons of instant messengers but have stuck with Brosix. It’s affordable and allows us to securely host it on our own server. It also allows for administrative monitoring so you can make sure it doesn’t get abused. Slack is another option.
• Marco Polo – This is something we were just introduced to by a colleague at a seminar. It’s a video messaging app, and you can think of it as a video walkie-talkie. It’s great for those who aren’t fans of texting or writing emails but don’t have the time to sit on the phone. In communicating you don’t lose the tone of voice and body language so important in many types of messages.

Practice Growth/Management

• Video calls –FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Zoom, RingCentral Meetings — we use all these apps pretty regularly to communicate between team members and business associates, as well as for marketing and social media. One of my favorite ways to use video conferencing is during a patient report of findings to have their significant other joins in. No more hearing patients say, “Let me talk to my spouse about it.”
• Collect payments anywhere: Mobile apps make it much easier to collect payments. These apps are also a great way to ensure the potential new patient shows up for their appointment in the office. What’s more, once the patient enrolls, automating payments whether they are one-time or monthly auto-debits not only saves time but removes the thought of money for the patient. (#Retention!)
• Patient Communication via email and text: We live in Southern California where there is a definite “fire season”. I remember one year, the power was out and tons of businesses were closing, except for us! In a process that took about 5 minutes, we sent out a branded email to our patient database letting them know that we were still there to turn their power on!  We used the Drip-Education System portion of Cash Practice.
  Texting is always a great way to immediately reach a patient. To keep our patients on track for their treatment plan, once they were 15 minutes late for their appointment, we would text them using an app/system like RingCentral. You can also use Google for this!!
• Timeclock Management System: There are tons of these out there. The days of pen and paper timesheets are gone!  In our office, we use uAttend. Not only can your team clock in & out from a computer, but also from an actual time clock unit on the wall or their mobile phone.
  There are tons of security features, such as controlling what computer or phone is allowed to be used.  One of our favorites is you can see the location from where they clocked in!  Pro tip – if you use the Cash Practice Auto-Debit System, you get a Free uAttend account for up to 9 employees!

Miscellaneous Apps. 

• TripIt – For our travels, we use TripIt to build our itineraries. It keeps the budget, confirmation numbers, and a detailed agenda of the trip.  It allows you to easily import reservations straight from your email as well!  This is crucial for us while I’m traveling and speaking around the country.  Our event coordinator puts all the details in TripIt and all I have to do is go where TripIt tells me!  I love the fact that I don’t have to think about what I need to do next as it’s all laid out for me on the agenda. This is perfect for traveling to seminars. 
• TaskRabbit/Serviz – How annoying and frustrating is it when something breaks in the office? It takes time away from making connections with patients. We have used apps like Task Rabbit and Seviz in our office when in need of a handyman to move a thermostat, build shelves, fix a toilet… etc. It causes a little interruption in our day and oftentimes you can have someone come within an hour!   Truly, this is a lifesaver!
• Amazon/Prime Now – Okay, everyone knows what Amazon is. They are practically taking over the world. But did you know that you can set up a Business Prime account and get extra deals on products specific to an office? You can set up different logins and roles so people can request items that are needed and can even set up recurring deliveries on items you are always needing on a regular basis. Taking it one step further is PrimeNow. It’s not in every city but it’s in quite a few. When you need last-minute items but don’t want to have someone have to run out and get it, you can schedule a delivery for items and it will be there within 2 HOURS. So let’s say you are hosting a health talk and want to give a raffle prize, Prime Now can now deliver it within two hours and you don’t even have to leave the office! It’s also great for those last-minute employee recognition surprises or if you forget someone’s Birthday!
• Food/Meal Delivery – Hosting a health talk and want to have food brought in? Or what about an all-day training or meeting with your team? Meal delivery services like UberEats, PostMates, Yelp, Grubhub all have kept our meetings productive by keeping us from getting hangry!  No one from our team has to leave the meeting to go pick up the food and struggle with tons of containers and bags. Full bellies = happy team! 

This list of chiropractic apps, many of which are free, can increase your success in practice, so use the technology to your advantage when appropriate.

About the Author,

Dr. Miles Bodzin is the Founder & CEO of Cash Practice Systems, Chiropractic’s #1 Technology Platform for Creating Loyal Patients.  He may be contacted at drobdzin@cashpractice.com or (877) 343-8950 x200.  Article contributions and editing by Amber Shepherd.