The DPC NP
The DPC NP Podcast is a biweekly audio program that offers valuable insights and firsthand experiences pertaining to the management of a Direct Primary Care clinic owned by nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Esteemed guests will articulate and elucidate their individual journeys in navigating the complexities inherent in establishing and operating a Direct Primary Care practice.
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aprice@faithfamilymedical.com
The DPC NP
From Employee Health to Entrepreneurship: Erin Kosich's Journey
The world of Direct Primary Care offers a revolutionary escape from the constraints of traditional insurance-based medical practice—but how do you actually grow a DPC practice once you've opened your doors? In this illuminating conversation, Amanda Price speaks with Erin Kosich, owner of Compass Health DPC in Durham, North Carolina, who reveals the marketing strategy that grew her practice by an impressive 20% in just one month.
After eight years working in an employer-based clinic that functioned much like a DPC, Erin took the leap to open her own practice in May 2022. What makes her story particularly valuable is her systematic approach to growth through targeted Facebook advertising. Working with Clinical Marketer, she developed campaigns specifically focused on women experiencing menopause—a strategy that proved remarkably effective. "It's been wildly successful," Erin explains, detailing how these specialized ads attract women seeking relief for menopausal symptoms who then discover the broader benefits of membership-based primary care.
The conversation dives deep into the mechanics of successful patient conversion through carefully structured meet-and-greets. Rather than delivering a rehearsed sales pitch, Erin begins by asking potential patients about their frustrations with traditional healthcare—then explains how DPC addresses those specific pain points. This personalized approach has proven highly effective at turning interested individuals into committed members who appreciate the direct access, extended appointment times, and genuinely caring relationship that DPC offers.
Beyond marketing tactics, Erin and Amanda explore the emotional reality of DPC ownership—the pressure to be constantly available, the guilt when not responding immediately to patient messages, and the particular personality type that thrives in this model. "The people-pleaser aspect is what makes a good DPC provider," Erin reflects, acknowledging both the challenges and rewards of creating a practice built on genuine patient relationships.
Whether you're a nurse practitioner considering opening your own DPC, looking to grow an existing practice, or simply curious about alternatives to insurance-based healthcare, this episode offers practical wisdom from someone who's successfully navigating the journey. Connect with other DPC practitioners at the upcoming DPC Launchpad cruise conference and discover how you too can build a thriving practice that transforms both your professional satisfaction and your patients' healthcare experience.
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Welcome to season two of the DPCNP podcast. I'm Amanda Price and I'm thrilled to be back, bringing you even more insights, strategies and success stories from nurse practitioners and physician assistants leading the way in direct primary care. This season, we'll dive deeper into real-world experiences, innovative practice models and the latest updates in the DPC movement. Whether you're just exploring DPC or already running your own practice, this podcast is here to support and inspire you. Let's get started.
Speaker 2:Hi everybody, Welcome back to the DPCNP. I have a wonderful guest today. Her name is Erin Kosich and she is from Durham, North Carolina. She owns Compass Health DPC. Erin, welcome to the show, Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I'm excited to interview you. We'll get into how I met you through Facebook, but I'm excited to hear all the things about your direct primary care clinic. So why don't you take us back to the beginning and tell us just what your background was in nursing and where you went to nurse practitioner school and where you worked before you opened up your clinic?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I went to nursing school at Duke University. So kind of have lived in, grew up in Raleigh, lived in this area my entire life, so ended up doing nursing school both for the bachelor's and the master's at Duke. I worked at Duke Hospital for, oh gosh, five or six years on the orthopedic unit and then decided that I really did want to go back and do more primary care medicine and and really kind of have the longer established relationships with patients and whatnot. So that's what kind of drove me back to go get the master's and become a nurse practitioner. And I actually was listening to an episode this was a couple weeks ago where someone had gotten a lot of experience in an employer setting and that is sort of how I got started as well.
Speaker 3:So that story is very aligned with sort of my experience and so a lot of my stuff prior, a lot of my work experience in primary care prior to this was at a micro practice, basically at an employer group, and so through that running that clinic I learned how to it was just me and a part-time medical assistant and so I learned how to be able to kind of manage you know ordering supplies and drawing labs and you know full primary care scope without insurance overhead. You know, a lot of their priority was on how well our diabetics were controlled and how well our hypertensives were controlled, and how well our hypertensives were controlled and all of the like more quality metrics, and so that's really what kind of led me into wanting to do something like this.
Speaker 2:And that was while you were working as a nurse practitioner then.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, so that was my MP job. Yeah, so I did that for eight years before I came over here.
Speaker 2:So you never had to work in the insurance market at all.
Speaker 3:Only for one year my first job outside of school, and that was it. Yes.
Speaker 3:And I quickly lucky you, yes, yes, and that job actually ended. The provider that, or the supervising physician that I worked for at that time, ended up getting in trouble for Medicaid and Medicare fraud and so he actually went to jail for a while. So it was a really rough, a rough intro into what it was like to be a primary care provider and you know insurance. I don't think he was doing things above board anyway. So I yeah, I didn't last.
Speaker 2:I was about a year at that job and then did that doctor get arrested while you were still working for him and that's why you got a new job? Or did you see the writing on the wall and you left before all that?
Speaker 3:No, I was too young and naive and I did not see writing on the wall that I should have yes, no, unfortunately, I got delivered a subpoena and that's when I realized that this was not the place I needed to be. Yeah, he, he didn't want me doing any of my own coding, and so that should have been a red flag. And now I see that. But, yeah, no, he, just he offered to do it for me because he was wanted to help. That did not go well. So as soon as, as soon as that all sort of crashed, I took a little bit of time off. I was pregnant, so it was a stressful time to get a subpoena. Anyway, I had, I just took. I took a few months off, had the baby and then went back to a different job.
Speaker 2:How did you find the job? That was the employer based job.
Speaker 3:A friend. Yeah, I just I had a friend that did it and loved it at another employer site down the street and so when she heard that they were hiring and she knew that I was, I had just had a baby. So I think my son was like three or four weeks old when I went in for that interview, because it was just the perfect job and I knew I wanted it. And so you know, I think I was like I had a kid strapped to me for the interview. But but yeah, they were like, yeah, this is great, it's fine.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I ended up getting that job and I loved it and there was a lot that I loved about it and I think you, really, when you work in a place like that and same with GVC, I really felt like I got to do what I wanted to do in the way I wanted to do it because I was able to take time to spend with patients and I wasn't having to worry about, hey, 15 minute appointments and it was. It was really all about. They really really cared that things were done well and I really loved that job for a long time and you know, the only thing that pushed me out was. I really wanted to grow and expand and it was corporate and so we started getting, you know, budget, this budget that we, you know, we can't hire another nurse, we can't hire that, you know. And I wanted to grow and hire more staff and they didn't want that.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, we're now in a place where I can kind of have control over that and I wanted to grow and hire more staff and they didn't want that, and so you know, we're now in a place where I can kind of have control over that and I love that. Yeah, I was going to ask you how you phased out in that, but that makes sense when corporate is, when they have their hands on anything, they always ruin it, don't they Right?
Speaker 3:Yes, it just became about the budget. At the end of the day, it really did.
Speaker 2:Well, what did it look like to decide that you were going to open your own practice? Did you have some time off between quitting that job and opening your job? Or while you were working, were you finagling opening up your practice? Walk us through that time.
Speaker 3:So basically that job got so busy because the clinic was, I mean, it was a good thing, the clinic was really successful and a lot of the employees were seeing the benefits of it, I think. And so it became really busy and I burned out and so I ended up. I did put in my notice and quit that job and I still help out there every now and then. I'm still technically employed there, so if they're, you know, next week their staff members going out of town, so I'll help fill in a few hours to help out still, but for the most part I'm completely separated from that. I did get a part time job where I was just working one day a week at another employee site so that I could have a little bit of extra income while I opened this. But at that point I had pretty much decided that I was opening this.
Speaker 2:Did you have patients that came from that employer group over to your direct primary care?
Speaker 3:Some and I love them for that.
Speaker 3:Yes, so it was a hard sell because they were getting it for free and it was on site and it was essentially a DPC, just on site, you know, at their work. And so the two providers that you know they hired somebody to cover what you know my position and they were fantastic and so I think a lot of that had good quality option there. So a lot of them ended up not coming, but I ended up with a few and you know I really meant a lot when they did come, because I knew they were really, you know it was inconvenient and they were having to pay to come see me, and so that meant a lot. And then, even over the last year, I have had several people reach out later that are now not employed by that company anymore and so once they leave the company then they come find me after they've left. So I have had a trickling of several that needed primary care after they left that company, which is also kind of cool to get to continue that and see them again.
Speaker 2:That just goes to show that you bonded with those employees while you were there. How many patients do you have at the moment?
Speaker 3:I just hit 140. We're getting there, yeah, and I opened May of last year, a little over a year.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's pretty good. So I wanted to talk to you about how you're marketing your business. And that gets us to how I met you. So I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw an ad for clinical marketer and it looked interesting to me because it looked like they would basically advertise your business for you. And it looked interesting to me because it looked like they would basically advertise your business for you and you would get all these patients within a matter of weeks. That's what it looked like. And so that was interesting to me because I have another nurse practitioner in my office and I have a full panel, but I'm trying to grow her panel and so I put out the Facebook ads.
Speaker 2:I've joined a BNI group. I've tried to do what I can to try to gain her patience, but it's slow going. So when I saw that ad on Facebook, I was like that's interesting, but I wonder if this is just a gimmick. So I clicked on it and I decided to go to reviews and the first review I saw was your review, and I didn't know who you were. But I'm like, oh, it's a nurse practitioner. So I'm going to try to stalk her and see if I can find her.
Speaker 2:And it was very easy to find you. So I reached out and I'm like, is this clinical marketer for real? And you're like yes. And I'm like, oh, oh, we need to interview for a podcast then. So that is your intro to telling all nurse practitioners and PAs that are listening to this podcast what is clinical marketer. What did they tell you you had to do? Spill the tea, tell us everything about it all and at the end of it, do you feel like you would do it again? Was it helpful? Could you have done it yourself If you had just known the information? Tell us everything.
Speaker 3:First of all, I know I couldn't have done it myself, because I tried. I had some Facebook ads, you know. I think I just thought that I could do it, and so I had sort of dabbled in some advertisements on Facebook and had gotten nothing from any of those. And so I had a colleague who was a, you know, a friend, who was a physical therapist, and so she had used Clinical Marketer because they started with PTs and so they do a lot of work with physical therapists. When I talked to her, she was telling me that I should get in contact with them. They were trying to get more into the DPC market and it might be a good fit, and so I worked with them. We worked with them for three or at least I did had like a three-month stint with them, and they basically taught me how to do. There was a lot of online modules and there was one-on-one coaching sessions where they taught me how to do the Facebook ads and run the Facebook ads, and so basically they had a lot of ads that they had created, and so then I could take them and tweak the wording or change a picture, make it a picture of our clinic, and kind of personalize the ads and then I ran those and so for a while I ran one that was like a meet the provider ad and the gist of that one was just to get people to click and schedule a meet and greet. And so I got some good traction on that one and had several people schedule the meet and greet and that went well.
Speaker 3:And then more recently been running a menopause one and I've found that it's just sort of a passion area of mine to help women through menopause and to do the hormone replacement therapy and all of that kind of stuff and so that's sort of aligned with the kind of practice I want to have anyway.
Speaker 3:And so I've been doing a lot of menopause ads and those have been wildly successful. I grew last month I grew 20%, so it was just I mean it's been great and some of that's been word of mouth and all of that, but a lot of it's been the menopause ads because then once the woman comes for the you know, the first menopause initial like menopause assessment where we talk about her symptoms and have a detailed explanation of like risks and benefits of HRT, they usually do end up signing on for a membership because by that point they've experienced what different primary care could be if you have this model. And so a lot of women who are notoriously not heard and in our healthcare system feel heard and so whether they sign up for HRT or whether they're even a good candidate for HRT or not, at that point they just appreciate the model and they've kind of gotten to experience how it could be different, and so I've gotten a lot of patients with that.
Speaker 2:So after your three months of the clinical marketer contract or whatever it was, do you still have access to the ads?
Speaker 3:Yeah they can supply have access to the ads that they can supply? Yes, so then you can still have access to all of those. So basically, what it comes with is all of the training to do the ads and sort of how to do the ads, and then there is a whole sort of like a CRM system that kind of manages all of the leads, of manages all of your all of the leads, and so it is really well organized. So as soon as a patient clicks on the ad, then it immediately funnels into. They get a text message from me, they get an email from me saying hey, you know you signed up for this. You know, meet the provider, meet and greet here, click this link to schedule it, and then they get on the second day they get another email hey, do you still want to do this meet and greet? And then they kind of get added to this flow. So at some point, eventually, maybe they will sign up, maybe they won't, but then I end up with their. They've put their email address and their phone number in there, and so then I've ended up with their information for you know ever. And so then, every month, up with their information for you know ever. And so then every month. Then they're added to my monthly newsletter list and that kind of thing. So then their whole software kind of helps you manage all of that in an easy way. So all of that flow is kind of set up by them.
Speaker 3:And then I just tweaked it to make it sound more like what I would have written.
Speaker 3:I mean just a little wording and stuff like that that would have to change to make it sound more like what I would have written. I mean just a little wording and stuff like that that would have to change to make it sound more genuine from me. And then that just kind of runs in the background and so I'll turn the ads on and off. But yes, you do still have access to that forever. You do pay, though I think it's like $200 a month for access to their software to be able to continue to do that and then plus whatever you're paying in Facebook ads, you know, because usually there for a while I would run at least $30 a day spend on Facebook ads. So it does, you know, sometimes that does add up. But I would just turn the ads off and on kind of depending on how busy I was feeling, and right now the kids are off for summer, so I'm turning them off so that I don't get bombarded with a bunch of new patients for the next couple months, and then I'll turn them back on.
Speaker 2:I want to ask you about your meet and greets. What do you do in a meet and greet? How long do they last and what kind of things do you say to a potential patient? And do you say to a potential patient and do you feel like your meet?
Speaker 3:and greets almost always close the deal. Yeah, they usually do. It is pretty smooth. They're usually about 15 minutes, but they usually end up going over a bit, so I usually give a little bit of wiggle room on the end. So, maybe more like 2025.
Speaker 3:And there is something in the when they schedule the meet and greet, it does give them the option of asking you know, is there anything in particular that would be helpful for Aaron to know before this talk and most people do write something there about exactly what they're looking for just ask them tell me what you know. First of all, I always ask how they found me, because I feel like that's important for me to track, to know where people are coming from. So that's kind of the first thing we start with is how do you even hear about the practice? And then, two, I asked them tell me specifically kind of what you're looking for in a primary care and what sort of frustrations you've currently having with the current healthcare that you've been getting. And so that kind of leads them into telling me exactly their struggles with the current model, and that always kind of opens up then an opportunity not for a sales pitch but more of an education about how this is different and so then I can really guide them into.
Speaker 3:Most of the time it's lack of access to the provider. You know the gatekeeping of the MyChart messages and that kind of thing, the portal messages where they can't get directly to their provider, which is obviously just a barrier that we get rid of completely in this. So they love the fact that they can text me and then a lot of times it's that they don't feel like there's been time to be heard or you know too quick to punt to a specialist for referral and they just want kind of one person to be able to just take a listen and really try to dive into all of their medical problems and so kind of explaining to them how these longer appointment times and a more personal relationship and you know all of that kind of stuff can really drive that improved satisfaction with their health care.
Speaker 2:Do you ever have patients that tell you why should I pay extra money to you? Because I have health insurance.
Speaker 3:What is your take on how you rebut that? First of all, I reassure them that most of my patients do have insurance, because I think that's a misconception with this model is that this is a cash pay practice, so it's for patients that don't have insurance and, yeah, it's great for patients without insurance, but it's also great for patients with insurance. And so I just I explain and I think a lot of that is just re-educating, and so I usually explain to them, which that's where it's helpful to ask what their current frustrations are, because then I can point specifically to you know, if somebody says something about lack of time with their provider, I can say, well, that's because the insurance is is not allowing them to spend more time with you. The insurance has pushing them to see X number of people in a day so they can make ends meet at the business, and so you know, I think that helps if they understand that the reason that they're getting that seven minutes with their provider is because they're trying to use their insurance and that we don't have to do it that way.
Speaker 3:And another thing I tell them often is that your provider can't spend all day messaging on my chart because they don't get any reimbursement from your insurance company for those messages, and so, since it doesn't matter in my world, I can sit there and text back and forth with patients all day long, and that's still me doing my job and still me taking care of people. It just looks a little bit different, and so the key is to figure out what their pain point was with the current model and then be able to speak to that specifically, which is why I always kind of start with that question of tell me what's frustrating you. They're here for a reason, they've made this meet and greet for a reason, and so if you just ask straight up what is that reason, and then you can kind of speak on that through the rest of the call.
Speaker 2:I love that idea. That would be a good way to start any meet and greet, which is sometimes can be kind of awkward, because you're just trying to sell yourself and, like you said, they've already walked in the door, so they're already curious, they're already interested. So now it's just like well, tell me specifically what it is that brought you in here that you don't like about the old system, and I do think that eventually there's going to be more of us than insurance, because doctors and nurse practitioners and PAs they're getting burned out and this model cannot sustain itself for much longer. The old model, our old model, so the new model, is going to take over. The specialists just have to figure out how to make it work for them. But right, all right, let me ask you this what are you charging your patients for, the monthly membership, and how did you come up with that cost?
Speaker 3:I came up with it. Well, first I'm charging 55 for if someone is 11 to 20, and then 80 for anyone 21 to 65. And then older than that is $100 a month. I currently offer all a cart visits, which I'm sort of slowly phasing out. I've had them because I just wanted to sort of have lots of options to get people in the door to experience the practice. But I'm finding that it's just doesn't work as well with all the follow up that's required for some of the primary care stuff. So I don't have a lot of patients that are doing all the cart right now and I'll allow them to continue whoever's currently doing that. But I'm phasing those out and really going towards a more all membership focus for any kind of chronic disease management. I think it just works better that way. It's more how the models intended, I think.
Speaker 3:But I came up with the pricing a couple of different things. So one I looked at. I had like a spreadsheet and I looked at all of the surrounding area and what everyone else was charging, so just sort of copied them and they were all. They were all roughly around the same thing, so it made it pretty easy. There weren't really a whole lot of outliers. So that was mostly what I did.
Speaker 3:And then I did a boot camp through. My hint is my EMR, and so they have a boot camp for anybody starting DPC. It was like maybe two or three month boot camp that taught you how to get started and one of their things was sort of making sure that your pricing was on point and they had a lot of different algorithms and things to figure out, different you know formulas to figure out what, based on how many patients you're going to see and how many, how much time you're spending with each one and all of the stuff, how much you should be charging. And I was kind of right there in the right ballpark, so that was sort of how we ended up settling there.
Speaker 2:That's how we all end up settling there. We're all stalking any other. Dpc clinic in the area and be like, oh, you charge it. Okay, that sounds good, I'll take that. Yeah.
Speaker 3:As long as we're all about the same, then it's completely fine.
Speaker 2:Exactly? Does your menopause patients pay their own special amount or is it the? Same, they're the same, and do you offer any kind of discount to those that will pay annual memberships or anything like that?
Speaker 3:Yes, so I have 10% for anybody that. 10% off for anybody that does an annual one, yeah same.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Do you see children 11 and up only? Yep, okay, and there are new DPC pediatrician only practices close by me so I network with both of them. So if a patient has kids that are little that want to be seen by a DPC practice, they can go to them and then whenever their patients age out, or if they have adults that want to be seen, they can send them to me. So it's nice to have those relationships locally with those providers those relationships locally with those providers.
Speaker 2:Yes, I totally agree. So, moving on to your EMR, you chose Hint. What made you choose Hint over any of the others?
Speaker 3:Truthfully, it was the bootcamp I looked at Atlas, alation and Hint so I looked at kind of I feel like those are like three of the big ones. I liked them all. I felt like roughly all the same price, all three about the same user-friendly interfaces and I felt like I could really make it work with any of them. And Hint was doing those bootcamps and it really was a valuable information. So I'm glad that I did that, but that was really what set them apart at that point.
Speaker 2:I didn't know about that. But I chose Atlas. But I did it because I like the simplicity. Hint seemed complicated.
Speaker 3:Once I got, once I've gotten used to it, it's been user friendly. It's been hard for me, though, because I came from my old practice, had Epic and competes with that nothing, and so I feel like anything is a little clunkier than that, and so it. You know, it took a lot to get used to what it was like to work outside of the epic system, which I obviously loved, but I've got I mean, I've gotten my rhythm now and my templates, and you know, all of it just sort of has to be individualized and made.
Speaker 2:Yes, which takes time. So do you have the hint all in one yes, made. Yes, which takes time. So do you have the hint all in one yes, okay. So you're doing all of your text, communication and everything through hint, so I use spruce for my texting.
Speaker 3:I didn't love hint. I like the spruce app. It's so much easier. I don't have to log in to hint every time I want to text somebody from my phone, so I feel like for me, being on the go, the Spruce app makes that a lot easier and it's worth the extra 50 bucks a month to be able to do that. But I do think that Hint is. I've heard at least that they're working on making a more user friendly version of their communicator platform, and so maybe one day I'll be able to switch back to really just truly use Hint for everything, but right now I just use them for billing and EMR.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my Atlas MD has an app and so I can message my patients and talk to them and everything through the app. So I don't have to constantly be logging in all the time because the app now it does log me in when I click on the app, but it's just doing a face recognition which takes yeah, it takes two seconds, and so then I can respond to my messages. I can call a patient. I don't think I can video call a patient from my cell phone, but I very rarely do that. Anyway, I just call them on the phone. I'm like you're not seeing my face. You know what I look like. It's old school. You just call Exactly, Exactly, and they appreciate that.
Speaker 3:So that's good.
Speaker 2:So I can see your office back there. Do you have brick and mortar place where patients come, or you're not just telemed, you actually see patients in office?
Speaker 3:Yes, so I rent. I started with just one room and now I have two. I rent a couple of rooms in the back of a chiropractor office. Oh, it's convenient and you know, I think we we learned really quickly that you can kind of make a medical practice out of any sort of room. I didn't need anything fancy and so I got a lot of furniture on Amazon, some cabinets and shelves from Amazon and put them together. And so I got a lot of furniture on Amazon, some cabinets and shelves from Amazon, and put them together, and there's about a used exam table and there's my exam room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm assuming then you don't have any employees yet, since you just have two rooms.
Speaker 3:I have a. I did end up hiring an assistant and so she actually was my nanny. She was the nanny to my kids for the last couple of years and then my youngest went to kindergarten in the fall, about the time that this was really ramping up and she wants to go to med school. And so I basically said hey, do you want to come be my office manager, slash medical assistant, and we can kind of train you up over here. So yeah, she's actually gone right now. She's going to pick up my kids from school. So it's very it works out really nicely.
Speaker 2:So she's still the nanny.
Speaker 1:She's still the nanny, but now she's your office manager slash assistant.
Speaker 3:Yes, she does it all. That's. That is amazing. Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, we can't all find people like that.
Speaker 3:I don't know where I would be without her. It's really fantastic.
Speaker 2:So do you have the ability to do strep tests and I don't know mono flu, covid, urinalysis and all those things? Does your assistant run those tests for you or do you do all the medical stuff and she's doing all the paperwork stuff?
Speaker 3:We started that way where she was really just most of the administrative stuff and I was all of the medical stuff, just because she didn't have any formal training. But as we're going starting to train her more in all of that kind of stuff and so now it's a mix, she's here about 20 hours a week, so it's not full time. So if she's here and she she does room all the patients now, so we you know she is doing that. She's learning phlebotomy, so she's practiced, and she does room all the patients now. So we you know she is doing that. She's learning phlebotomy, so she's practiced on me several times. But we're kind of getting her trained on all of that kind of stuff. But I still do for now I'm still doing all the blood work and some of the point of care, testing it really kind of depends.
Speaker 2:What lab do you use?
Speaker 3:I use LabCorp. I've been happy with them. I think I price compared them and Quest and they were significantly better. So they seem to be fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were the least expensive, for me as well. I guess the only issue I have with LabCorp is probably our rep. I guess maybe it's because they're stretched so thin, I don't know, but she's hard to get in touch with.
Speaker 3:We just got a new one and I haven't actually met with her yet, so I don't know.
Speaker 2:I haven't needed her for anything yet, so hopefully she'll be fine, that's good, I have about 450 patients and then my other nurse practitioner has about a hundred right now and I would say, on average I probably have four patients that come in for actual office visits a day. How many would you say come in to see you?
Speaker 3:I probably see today I saw four. It's real variable. So, like yesterday, I saw eight, but then we were at the beach this weekend and we didn't get back till later on Monday, so I didn't see anybody Monday. I mean, that's the beauty of this is it can be flexible with whatever. And then I had my physical, you know, one morning this week, so I didn't see anybody for a couple hours. I can really kind of build it with enough notice. I can kind of build it to be heavier on some days and lighter on others, and so it's really a flexible schedule. The only thing I try to do is if someone needs to be seen for a sick visit, preferably same day, at least next day appointments, I kind of clump the others together and have you know days where I can kind of be here and seeing you know eight, and then maybe not any the next day or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I do too, but I do find it strange that there's some days where they'll hardly text you or nobody's asking to come in, and yesterday was that day for me. I had no patience in the office. And then today is technically my day off, where if I'm going to schedule and do anything outside of the office it's always on Fridays. But like everybody's texting me today, I'm like oh this has turned out to be a terrible Friday. Why didn't y'all all text me yesterday?
Speaker 3:When.
Speaker 2:I would have sat at the office. I got to sit at home all day, which I'm not complaining, but I am complaining if you waited till Friday to text me. Right, right, and most of the patients that I have in DPC were patients of mine when I was taking insurance, so I've always had Friday off. These people know I'm off on Fridays, but they waited until Friday to be like. I think I want to sign his cocktail today. But I will say I've never really talked to any other nurse practitioners about the emotional side of DPC. Maybe I'm bringing it up because you're a good one to ask about it, but if I don't respond to a text within an hour or something, the guilt because I'm like, oh my gosh, they're paying for this, they're paying for me, they're going to leave me. I feel like I'm walking on eggshells with all my patients because I'm so afraid if I don't respond within an hour or let them be seen because they're asking or accommodate every single thing, they're just going to leave me.
Speaker 3:How do you feel?
Speaker 2:Do you feel the same way?
Speaker 3:Yes, there's a lot of pressure. Yes, when I think that when you're in that traditional system, there's such this like jaded outlook for providers and you know it's just oh, I'll get, I'll get to them doing the best I can, I'll get to them when I can, and like all of this stuff. And I think I think we say that to ourselves because we know that that's how, like self-preservation, you know, like I really am doing the best I can, and I said that even back in my corporate job was like, if I don't get to somebody like I'm I mean sure I'm doing my best and I am, but if I don't give every single person 110% and make them feel like I've given them individually 110%, they have the ability to just take their business to another place and it's it is. It's terrifying, it's a lot of pressure.
Speaker 2:It really is, and especially when I can't speak for everybody. But I am a major people pleaser and so that is working against me Now, I think that.
Speaker 3:But I think that's also what makes a good DPC provider is that you care what, like you do want them to be happy, cause it is. I mean, it's a it is a customer satisfaction thing as well. You want to make them feel special and make them feel heard and all of those things that you know. The people pleaser aspect of it, I think, is what makes a good DPC provider. You know if you, if you didn't care, I don't know if people would love you as much. You know. I think that's what makes them love you and open up to you and know that you genuinely do care about how they feel about the situation.
Speaker 2:And I have said on many podcasts that there is a type of provider that we all seem to have, the same personality type, and it is just exactly what you said that people pleasing, that overly compassionate, you know, the one that cares what people think, and stuff like that. Because when I worked in the insurance world I had three or four nurse practitioners that worked for me at one time and some of those nurse practitioners would not have meshed well in DPC because they were very stoic, they were very black and white, and so when I was switching from insurance to DPC, I had a nurse practitioner that was working for me and I'm like please stay with me, you're going to love it, but you gotta give it time and it'll grow. And she didn't stick with it just because she she couldn't see where it was going, but in hindsight I'm glad she didn't stick it out when I think a lot of that is just setting up expectations, because I've told all my patients I don't respond on nights and weekends.
Speaker 3:But then you guys text me. If you think of something, send it and I'll see it when I log in the next morning and they will. And so there's certainly been weekends where someone will send me something and be like I know it's the weekend and you're off, but like just FYI, xyz, and I'll text them and be like yeah, you need, you can't wait till the week, you can't wait till Monday, go to urgent care or go to the ER or whatever, like yeah, I mean I'm glad you went ahead and said that and I did see it. And here's what I think go ahead. And and I think that's part of that is I also don't.
Speaker 3:I would break my heart to think that somebody had some sort of problem on Saturday morning and just suffered all weekend long without saying anything about it. I had a patient with a stomach virus one weekend. I sent her in Zofran, like just little things that we can do to make their lives a little bit better, even if it is the weekend. It's going to take me five seconds, but it made her whole weekend to have Zofran while she was dealing with her stomach bug, you know. And so I think when it, when it is something quick and easy like that that we can address and it is timely, it's part of the job.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah. Do you find that reviews on Google and stuff help boost your visibility and stuff like that, and how do you incentivize patients leaving reviews on Google or Facebook to boost your business?
Speaker 3:boosting my reviews, because I think when I try I get several, and then I have a good little, a little bout where I have, you know, a bunch of good reviews and then I quit asking for them or, you know, just quit soliciting them, and then every now and then I'll get one. Somebody left one yesterday. They'd come and had a good visit left of review, but for the most part those are kind of few and far between. I do have to kind of ask patients to do them. So I have one of those little Google review cards. Have you seen those? That was a Facebook ad that got me. But basically they tap, they can tap their phone to it and it was cheap I think it was 40 bucks and they tap their phone to it and it directly goes to my Google review page. Because I did buy one that did not work well at all and then I ended up buying this one that was a little bit more expensive and it was much, much better quality.
Speaker 2:So I but, it's only $40. Yeah, yeah it really wasn't bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. No, it wasn't bad, but the other one, I think, was 10. I was just being cheap.
Speaker 3:Well, I guess you get what you pay for, but yeah, that was definitely worth the $40 investment on that, and then they can do that. So I leave that in the exam room and so they can kind of. You know how it is with DPC. They're not really waiting in there for me at all, but it's, it's in there and if I remember it's an old social or like a visual cue for me to say, hey, can you just tap that and leave a review? I'm trying to collect reviews or whatever.
Speaker 2:Is it a QR code?
Speaker 3:No, it's a little plastic stand and so somehow it just connects their phone and then they literally tap their phone to it and it automatically pops up on their screen. My Google page for reviews.
Speaker 2:I love that. Oh, I totally want that because I've been trying to work my Google page for reviews. I love that. Oh, I totally want that because I've been trying to work on my Google reviews because, you're right, patients just don't, they don't think about just going in there and leaving the review. So we had to. We did a a little incentive by offering a hundred dollar Amazon card and we're like leave a review between this date and this date and we'll put your name in a hat for a drawing for leaving the Google reviews. And so that gave me about 20 or so reviews and then I just did a drawing and we we videoed it and so you could see how genuine I was about like I'm not just like cherry picking, like who I want to win, and I picked the name and we called the guy and he was so excited he was. He told his wife he's like I've never won anything and his wife was like I've already spent it.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep yep, that's fantastic, we did. We did one like that for a t, we gave away a compass health t-shirt and we did that when I I was kind of early on and that's where I got my last batch of reviews was through there oh, so you do t-shirts and stuff we just had the one, so that's another.
Speaker 3:Yes, we just had the one, and actually I have one and my husband has one. That's another thing that the nanny does. She really does it all. She does a bunch of craft type stuff. So she made she's made my kids all sorts of different types of stuff. But she yeah, she designs them and then irons them on. Somehow. She does a whole t shirt making thing. She did for a little bit, so we had a few t shirts.
Speaker 2:Nice, yeah, I guess we all need a nanny, like years.
Speaker 3:That's great. Another thing for Google reviews that I've heard, all reviews that I've been meaning to do and just haven't done it yet. I read about this and that have you read the plum DPC book?
Speaker 2:No, but I have heard of it. I just haven't ever read it. Yes, plum health.
Speaker 3:He's in Detroit, yes, so he had a recommendation to put have like a separate page on your website for just reviews and to put links for, you know, facebook, google, yelp, whatever you wanted to have, like three or four and then every time someone leaves an appointment, send them the link if they've never filled out a review. So, hey, did you enjoy your appointment this morning? Like, if you'd like to leave a review here you can choose, you know, and then they can choose whether they want to do it on Google or Facebook or wherever. So I've been meaning to create that page and do that and send those links out after the visit. I just haven't done it yet.
Speaker 2:I wish our EMR would do that, because when I was taking insurance, the EMR I had was eClinicalWorks. The one thing I do miss about eClinicalWorks is after every visit a patient got an opportunity to give a review, like it automatically texted them and even though they didn't download into Google or anywhere, they just stayed in eClinicalWorks. I had probably five or 600. And when I was having a bad day I could go in those reviews and just read them to remind myself that it's okay, that I'm doing okay. And I wish that my EMR had that, because I relied on that instead of Prozac, because the cause of most of my anxiety and depression was this clinic at that time. And there's only so much an antidepressant can do for you. It can't help you pull it all together and help you make money, but there's something to be said for people's positive words about how good you're doing, because that that reaches your heart and it's so helpful.
Speaker 3:And I don't think patients realize how much because it's an individual person behind these reviews. So anytime someone leaves me a review, it means so much.
Speaker 2:For any of you nurse practitioners listening out there with your own DPC clinics like definitely prioritize encouraging reviews for your practice because that's how you're going to get more patients. If you're still trying to grow your practice and they definitely look I know we're getting close to the end Tell me, what is the future of Compass Health DPC?
Speaker 3:look like I would love to hire somebody. So, yeah, at some point I'd like to have another nurse practitioner with me and kind of be able to at least sustain two providers, maybe three, some kind of you know. Not not anything huge, but I'd love to have more providers working with me. Yes, well, you can always. Not not anything huge, but I'd love to have more providers working with me.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, you can always text me if you want to. You've got me.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that. It is nice. The DPC Facebook group has been like a great community of other nurse practitioners and and it is nice to not feel cause it can be isolating when you're starting something like this so it is nice to be connected to everybody.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I've been so thankful for that Facebook page. I've made so many good friends through that page. Are you coming to the DPC launchpad?
Speaker 3:I really want to. I had so much fun and I went to the last one in February and it was I mean, yeah, I've made friends that I still text with now. You know, it's just it's it's nice to have that connection and it's a good opportunity to build that.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, good I'm looking forward to seeing you. Then I mean, I technically haven't paid for my cruise room yet.
Speaker 2:I haven't actually booked anything yet, but we'll go ahead and book, because we have to have eight rooms booked before they'll let us actually even rent the conference room. It'll be packed. It was packed last year. I know they're all just waiting till the last minute. Actually, two people have signed up, so we need six more people to go ahead and sign up so we can rent the room, because I don't want another entity to rent it out from underneath us, which hopefully that will not happen.
Speaker 1:All right, All, right, okay, erin, yes.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, it's so great talking to you. Thank you so much for your time. I think people will learn from you. If someone wants to email you and ask you about the clinical marketer, do you mind sharing your email address so that they can reach out to you about that? Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3:So it's Erin at compasshealthdpccom.
Speaker 2:Yes, perfect. Thank you so much and I look forward to seeing you in February on the cruise ship. That'll be so fun and hopefully this podcast is going to reach a lot of people and be very informative. So thank you so much, erin. Thanks, amanda, it was fun. Have a great day. Bye, bye. Thank you so much for joining us today on the DPCNP. We hope you found our conversation insightful and informational. If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider subscribing to our podcast so that you do not miss an update, and don't forget to leave us a review. Your feedback means the world to us and it helps others discover our show. We love hearing from our listeners. Feel free to connect on our social media, share your thoughts, your suggestions and even topic ideas for future episodes. As we wrap up today, we are so grateful that you chose to spend a part of your life with us. Until next time, take care. This is Amanda Price signing off. See you on the next episode. Thank you.