When southwest Pennsylvania counseling and consulting practice Favored Wellness outgrew its practice management software, they had to take action, or risk limiting their growth.
Favored Wellness was founded in 2020 on owner Danielle Vogan’s vision of expanding access to trauma-informed, holistic care in the region. The practice started with just two clinicians and eventually grew to more than 30 providers serving 1,000+ clients across two locations.
The clinic’s first practice management software was adequate for its needs in the early days. But as Favored Wellness added providers and patients, the system could no longer keep up with everything staff required in order to do their work well. Once the practice had passed ten providers, says office manager Traci Haine, the software’s limitations were becoming unacceptable—a big problem considering that the practice’s founding principle was expanding access to fill a need.
“We were losing a lot of money. The system didn’t give us the ability to do our work in an efficient manner,” Haine remembers. With a small support staff, Favored Wellness needed all the efficiency it could get in order to remain profitable and grow.
In addition to the inefficiency of daily work, the software’s limitations impacted the ability to gather insights on the business. Staff couldn’t generate the kind of detailed reports they needed to inform practice management decisions. Organizational tasks, such as managing aging client info, became DIY nightmares with staff creating their own spreadsheets and entering information manually.
Favored Wellness knew it was time for a new software solution.
Powerful but User-Friendly
Haine was determined to find an EHR that was an excellent fit for the practice, so she requested demos from several software companies and compared them diligently. She was looking for software that offered flexibility and a wide range of features while remaining user-friendly. Staff and providers needed the software to perform many tasks without being burdensome to operate.
As Haine compared solutions, one EHR stood above the rest.
“What really caught me about Valant was that it was strictly for outpatient practices,” Haine says. In her quest for powerful and flexible solutions, she had seen software that mixed inpatient and outpatient management features, which would be too confusing for staff at an outpatient-only practice like Favored Wellness. Valant struck the right balance of flexibility and wide-ranging features without being confusing or complicated.
Favored Wellness chose Valant in the hopes that this, finally, could solve their software woes.
White Glove Service
Right away, Valant’s implementation process reaffirmed for Haine that Favored Wellness had made the right selection for an EHR provider. Valant’s implementation representatives impressed her with their diligent approach and helpful software training. She found the representatives to be thorough, responsive, and committed to regular communication as Favored Wellness got its bearings with the new system. Not only did they stick to a routine of regular meetings with Haine, but they were available between touch-ins.
“They were amazing with giving me their time,” said Haine.
Representatives didn’t just fire off quick answers to queries; they took time to understand what Favored Wellness needed the software to do, and investigated the best ways to solve any given challenge. If reps didn’t know an answer, they would take time to find out and report back, sometimes within the same business day.
Even after Valant “went live” at Favored Wellness, Valant representatives were still available to meet with Haine for troubleshooting and questions
Top-Tier Functionality
It wasn’t long before Valant was solving some of the most persistent headaches that Favored Wellness staff and clinicians had experienced with their previous software.
Reporting capabilities were a marked improvement. Valant reports could generate the data that Favored Wellness actually needed in order to make smarter business decisions. Valant made it easy to generate customized reports on payments, revenue, payroll, referral sources, billing documentation, outcome measures, and much more. Favored Wellness is able to obtain detailed reporting on different factors per provider, per patient, and even per location.
Valant wasn’t a difficult system for motivated employees to learn. The company provided excellent training, and some staff members found they didn’t even need training to get the hang of it. “I had a clinician that literally taught herself the system, and she loves it,” Haine says.
The ease and flexibility of workflows made a huge difference in staff efficiency. Freed from cumbersome manual processes, the clinic’s small team of support staff were better able to handle the workload that comes with supporting a large provider group. Clinicians benefited, too, with access to simple bill generation, strong automation features for documentation, a useful patient portal, and much more.
Embrace the “New”
Favored Wellness found that growth sometimes requires an investment in the “new”—a new process, a new software, a new way of doing things. Their openness to a new EHR has given them the bandwidth and the information they need to keep growing.
If your practice has outgrown its current software, or something about it just isn’t working, consider how Valant could help you step into a new era of practice management. Schedule a demo today to learn more.
