In South Australia, approximately 60 kilometres northeast of Adelaide sits the well-known region of the Barossa Valley – the location of the clinic we’ve chosen to feature in our Bp VIP.net case study.
Normally known as a region that produces some of the country’s best wine, the Barossa Valley is also home to the Barossa Eye Clinic. Here, Dr Deric De Wit and wife Tanya, along with an efficient support staff, operate an ophthalmic clinic that services the greater community of the Barossa Valley.
The Challenge
Prior to the adoption of Bp VIP.net, Dr Deric De Wit, who now owns the Barossa Eye Clinic in South Australia, had been working in other clinics operating without a digitised Practice management system. Despite the wide acceptance of paper-based medical records, Dr. De Wit had many concerns around a lack of privacy, safety and security with paper-based records, and the potential risk of a data breach.
Security of sensitive patient data wasn’t Dr. De Wit’s only concern. A paper-based recordkeeping system also operates in absence of clinical decision-making support tools, lacks clinical governance, and doesn’t offer the ability to quickly and easily obtain a full view of a patient’s history, thereby increasing the risk of clinical error.
Physical recordkeeping and paper-based correspondence were also costly. The organisation and administration of patient records monopolised several hours each day and cost the Practice in terms of physical storage space and the ongoing expense of office supplies. Having to manually lodge Medicare claims meant staff were also commonly spending time on the phone with Medicare. There was excessive duplication of commonly used tests, which would have to be printed and sent in paper envelopes, adding to expenses, and not uncommonly, there was the possibility of incorrect filing with paper-based systems also. Operating in this manner inevitably resulted in a backlog of requests, which could lead to a delay of hours or even days before a decision could be made, which greatly impacted their efficiency and ability to deliver exceptional services to their patients.
Dr. De Wit believed that a digital Practice management system would solve these issues and concerns and would provide many additional cost savings and efficiencies when he opened his own new Practice.
The Practice
Barossa Eye Clinic is a private ophthalmology clinic servicing the communities of the Barossa Valley and Northern Adelaide. However, the reputation of the clinic is such that they regularly field patients from Perth and Sydney who travel for specialised glaucoma treatments. Since opening in 2018, the Barossa Eye Clinic operates with 10 staff and has served approximately 4,000 unique patients in that time.
Dr Deric De Wit serves as the clinic’s lead ophthalmologist. Dr De Wit is the clinic’s Clinical Lead and takes responsibility for all medical issues, medical pathways, clinical governance, research and technical issues within the clinic. His wife Tanya is the Practice Manager, and together they are supported by a team of administration staff and ophthalmic technicians.
Selecting Bp VIP.net
As part of their selection and evaluation process, Dr De Wit and Tanya had numerous concerns front of mind. They were aware of the fact that older staff may take some time to adapt to an electronic system, and that some users may not be able to type quickly enough. There was the ever-present risk around network security, and the worry that the IT support rendered by the software provider may not be sufficient. In addition, there was a lingering concern that the software would not be adaptable enough for each of the clinic’s staff or compatible with the external systems that the clinic used on a regular basis such as the PBS, accounting packages and third-party integrations. They were also mindful of the overall cost of the system.
After taking this into consideration and evaluating several other products, Tanya and Dr. De Wit ultimately decided to choose Bp VIP.net as their Practice management system of choice.
“It was the best overall performer by far – it was sleek, user friendly, it had such depth and excellent programming behind it – almost everything I could have thought of was already in place along with many other well thought out strategies for safe and efficient medical practice. The pricing was good and the team behind it nimble and transparent.”
One other significant advantage of Bp VIP.net that Dr. De Wit felt was of particular value was that while it’s an incredibly customisable solution, the base product works ‘out of the box’ and integrates with a range of well-known and commonly used platforms such as the PBS, EFTPOS and Medicare.
Both Tanya and Dr. De Wit felt that after considering all available options, Bp VIP.net was the only solution that truly ticked all their boxes, and that they were fully committed to using it above any other platform they had trialed.
Since Using Bp VIP.net
The Barossa Eye Clinic staff still held some reservations over the impact of their decision during the early stages of the installation and onboarding process, however these dissipated quickly once they started using the software.
In addition to the general fluidity and ease-of-use, Dr. De Wit also praised the positive impact Bp VIP.net has had on the Practice’s measured results.
By Dr. De Wit’s estimation, his new clinic has also saved thousands of dollars per year in physical mail costs and is reassured by the instant correspondence that emails and faxes provide over paper mail. He also makes special mention of the electronic benefits with regards to billing and Medicare processing, as this was previously a task that consumed many hours of staff time on the phone, which is no longer an issue for them.
Another unmeasured, but very realistic saving is that the clinic has not missed an important patient follow up appointment as they use the excellent recall and follow-up system in the software with ease.
Dr. De Wit touts the system’s flexibility to customise workflows and templates as a significant benefit to the way he operates. In addition, his staff’s general feedback on Bp VIP.net is glowing, especially from staff who are old enough to remember how cumbersome and awkward it was to operate in a busy Practice with a paper-based system. He explains that each of his staff feel a peace of mind when using the software each day, knowing that nothing is going to slip through the cracks which, in his experience, is one of the biggest potential stressors in any medical Practice.
The Barossa Eye Clinic also uses Bp SMS to complement Bp VIP.net. They praise the additional functionality for its efficiency, commenting on the excellent feedback they receive from their staff and patients alike.
Overall, Dr. De Wit has nothing but praise when discussing the benefits that Bp VIP.net has brought to the Barossa Eye Clinic.
“I am one of your strongest supporters, and I never hesitate to show my colleagues in the UK and Germany the excellence of this program. Somehow, I get to feel like I am responsible for some of its brilliance when I am showing them, and I get a real buzz and ego boost when I show other people how wonderful our software is. In fact, I view Bp VIP.net as the gold standard out of all the electronic medical software solutions that I’ve seen – I have worked in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Germany and other parts of Australia – no medical software I have used has ever been so streamlined and comprehensive.”
You can find out more about the Barossa Eye Clinic at their website.