Healthcode Academy case study – Mrs Charlie Russell
One of the first users to enrol in the new Healthcode Academy, Charlie Russell, tells us how these free online tutorials really opened her eyes to the wealth of useful features on ePractice and helped her use them with confidence.
Charlie Russell is a private practice PA for general surgeon Mr Neil Russell and based in Cambridgeshire. While she had been using ePractice since January 2018, Charlie jumped at the chance to take part in online training with Healthcode Academy so she could better understand the system and its capabilities.
“Healthcode is extremely intuitive anyway so I had managed to navigate my way around over the years and would call if I had any problems. However, this training offered me the opportunity to refresh what I knew and also learn about the other functions,” she explains.
Launched in 2021, the Healthcode Academy provides modular online training programmes with a product specialist in ePractice practice management software and The Private Practice Register (The PPR), Healthcode’s online directory of practitioners. Each free session lasts between 30 minutes and one hour and uses the practice’s own Healthcode system to make it as familiar and relevant as possible. Setting up the online sessions was easy, says Charlie: “There were lots of different options and times so I could pick the time that was best for me.”
The ePractice modules that Charlie completed were: Settings and configuration which covers how to customise ePractice to her own individual needs; Billing which focuses on how to efficiently create and submit electronic invoices; and Payments which looks at how to manage payments, remittances, credit control and reminders through ePractice.
“The training was well thought out and professionally delivered,” says Charlie. “The trainer moved at my pace and tailored the content to focus on areas where I needed more support. Working on our own system and with our own patients in real time also helped me understand and feel more confident.”
Looking back, Charlie believes the training gave her the knowledge and ability to use ePractice more effectively, making use of shortcuts on the Quick Menu and system features to help with day-to-day tasks. “For example, I’d been doing a lot of paper billing to patients but I now feel confident about using the patientzone electronic billing function to do this, “she explains. “The trainer showed me the membership enquiry feature to check on individual insurance details which is extremely useful as it means I don’t need to call the insurance companies. In the Payments module, the trainer explained really well how to make adjustments to payments, such as a credit, which is an area I had previously found difficult.”
“Another benefit was that after I had given my feedback, I received a post-training pack which covered everything that we had covered in the session and more. Now I have the tools at my fingertips so if I get stuck so I can refer to this rather than calling customer services and waiting for assistance.”
Healthcode Academy proved such a positive experience for Charlie that she is keen to recommend it to other users: “The training taught me how to navigate the system better and introduced me to features that I wasn’t aware of. I would not hesitate to recommend it to new starters and seasoned Healthcode practitioners alike.”
The Healthcode Academy is available to anyone with a Healthcode user ID and password. Customers can register online to be able to book a convenient slot.