Scale Your Practice Faster with Katrina Whitehair
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Listen:
Katrina Whitehair, a former practice administrator turned aesthetic practice consultant, shares her essential strategies for creating value and making meaningful changes in a practice.
Katrina and Robin cover:
Why keeping great talent is just as important as patient retention
How aligning missions should start right at the interview stage
The importance of clear values and a mission statement for long-term success
Why practice administrators are the unsung heroes of the industry
The risks of not investing in staff education
How administrators can support providers by offering meaningful help and structure
The dangers of not automating key processes
Why consulting services aren’t worth the investment if you're not ready to embrace change
About Katrina Whitehair
Katrina Whitehair is a former practice administrator and current aesthetic practice consultant with over 18 years of experience in the aesthetic medicine and ophthalmology fields. In her current role at BSM Consulting, she provides support to medical aesthetic practices, helping them improve efficiency, expand, and succeed.
Links
Learn more about BSM Consulting
Connect with Katrina on LinkedIn
Transcript
Announcer (00:06):
You are listening to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech.
Robin Ntoh (00:10):
Welcome back to Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech. I'm Robin Ntoh, and today we have with us Katrina Whitehair, and she is a consultant with BSM Consulting. So excited you could be here with us today.
Katrina Whitehair (00:23):
Thank you, Robin. I'm very happy to be here.
Robin Ntoh (00:25):
So just tell us a little bit about your path to where you are now, because obviously you're a consultant. I've done consulting for many, many years as well, and there's a lot that goes into what we are and how we have evolved. So let's talk a little bit about your story.
Katrina Whitehair (00:42):
Well, let's go back to the beginning.
Robin Ntoh (00:45):
Good place to start.
Katrina Whitehair (00:47):
I was born and raised in Kentucky. I got my degrees there. I got an undergrad in psychology and Spanish. I have my MBA. And I relocated to New York City and started working in an ophthalmology practice doing marketing for an ophthalmologist.
Robin Ntoh (01:03):
Ophthalmology, but now you're really working in the field of aesthetics.
Katrina Whitehair (01:07):
Yes, I primarily work in plastic surgery, dermatology and med spas to date.
Robin Ntoh (01:14):
How do you transfer or relate the insights and knowledge that you had in ophthalmology to plastic surgery?
Katrina Whitehair (01:21):
That's a great question. It was my first operations manager job in healthcare. And those day-to-day operations can translate by specialty. And although I started in ophthalmology, I got into dentistry and then moved into operations for plastic surgery, which led into med spa operations. And those tools can be similar even though the nuances by specialty are different those day-to-day operational skills stay the same.
Robin Ntoh (01:53):
I would also argue that ophthalmology practices tend to be larger.
Katrina Whitehair (01:58):
True.
Robin Ntoh (01:58):
And so from an operations perspective, you probably have a foundation that is a little bit stronger, dare I say, because you have more employees to manage, so you have to have more processes in place. So one would argue that you potentially gained more operational insights and knowledge working there first, and then we're able to transfer that over into your work and how you actually work with plastics or other aesthetic practices.
Katrina Whitehair (02:25):
That's in very astute observation. I hadn't thought about it that way, but you're spot on.
Robin Ntoh (02:29):
Well, we work in ophthalmology too. So if you think about Nextech, we're in several specialties, ophthalmology is one of them.
Katrina Whitehair (02:36):
Absolutely. And you're right, it was a large scale, I worked with eight ophthalmologists and eight optometrists over four boroughs in New York City.
Robin Ntoh (02:48):
Wow.
Katrina Whitehair (02:48):
It was quite large.
Robin Ntoh (02:50):
Yeah. And did you do any type of retail healthcare in that space?
Katrina Whitehair (02:55):
Yes, there was an optical in one of those locations. I was not directly involved, but understood the retail component of what we did.
Robin Ntoh (03:04):
So making that transition into aesthetics, what would you say are some of the key things that would be similar in both specialties?
Katrina Whitehair (03:16):
I think any specialty faces similar challenges with staffing, with tech stack, with how we do what we do and how do we wow our patients. And when we drill down to front office operations or back office operations, those efficiency struggles start to look real similar, even though the language we're speaking and the services we're providing and the way we do it is different
Robin Ntoh (03:45):
Now, let's talk about some of those challenges. I think that, yes, I know we talk about this a lot, podcasts, white papers, different articles. We talk about our society meetings. I know you and I speak a lot at some of the same meetings. However, I still think that there's things that consistently are on the top end of it, like staffing always an issue. But I think there's different factors that push and pull in that arena to make them even more prominent or even more exacerbated, I guess would be the best word, within a practice. So I think right now, one thing that I think is key in aesthetics is that we're seeing the slowdown, everybody's talking about it, but from I think about administrators, so where do they struggle with staff during this type of economic shift, I guess would be the best way to put it.
Katrina Whitehair (04:37):
Staffing is always going to be a hot topic. We are in a relationship building business, we're in the business of people, and not only are customers, but our staff, our providers, our medical directors, there's a lot of relationships and communication. And maintaining those key staff members and retention of staff is just as important as patient retention in my opinion.
Robin Ntoh (05:09):
Yeah, no retention I think is great. I mean, we put fancy words on things, so we call it talent now. So I mean at Nextech we have a talent and acquisition team. Okay, I like that. But okay, so retaining talent, I guess we'll put that buzzword on it. Retaining talent, it really wasn't something I'd say a decade ago that was important. People were just kind of flocking to this industry wanted to be part of it. Now I think that there's a little bit more work and effort that has to go into retaining it, but I also think it goes back to cultivating it. And I think about, it's a struggle when I talk to practices, I'm interested in your perspective on it where it's usually smaller, it's a smaller number of employees within a practice. They wear multiple hats, but yet they're looking for career advancement. How do you help a practice or administrator overcome that when there's no place to go, but maybe to replace the administrator themselves? So how does that really play out in what you see in your practices?
Katrina Whitehair (06:19):
Being a former practice administrator, I've lived that struggle that day to day, and you're spot on when talking about career pathing. And that conversation starts at the interview. And good point, it starts with having an understanding of the organization. And in my opinion, we start with their mission, their vision, and their core values. Who are they? Where are they going and what do they stand for? And does that align with you as an individual and as a professional? And we start that conversation when we're interviewing those staff about what are your personal and professional goals and does that align with our organizational goals? And that's where we begin that conversation to overcome those future struggles that we have with those staff that maybe we didn't know how to position ourselves and explain who we are and what we're doing. And maybe those staff become disengaged later and we kind of missed that step. So I think it starts at the beginning.
Robin Ntoh (07:24):
It's an important call out though too, because there's so many things that start at the beginning. Are you hiring the right staff but instilling in them what you are and who you are. But I go back to do most practices even know what their core values are? What is their mission statement? And do you find yourself in a position as a consultant that you're actually working with them to even develop that?
Katrina Whitehair (07:44):
A hundred percent. And I'll tell you, Robin, when practices come to us and ask for operational advice or staffing advice, I start there. Do you have values? Do you have a mission statement? Do you have a vision? Have you revisited it? I want to understand who you are. And at BSM Consulting, that's a part of our internal culture. We have core values and we live them and we meet monthly with our entire team, and we highlight those values through our work and it stays top of mind. And I approach client work the exact same way. And that initial discovery phase and understanding who they are helps me support them and support their teams. If they haven't established that or if they haven't revisited it, let's start there.
Robin Ntoh (08:35):
It's a good place to start. I think a lot of times they also misunderstand what it is supposed to be and how they're supposed to facilitate that and execute on it across their entire organization. And when I say entire organization, one would think I'm thinking of 50 employees. No, an organization is really your business, whether it's two people or 25 people.
Katrina Whitehair (08:58):
A hundred percent. I couldn't agree more.
Robin Ntoh (09:00):
Yes. It's crazy though to think about it, but let's go back to the administrator because I think they're the unsung hero. So often we talk about the physicians a lot. We talk about the industry insights and the problems and KPIs and reporting, but let's talk about that administrator. I mean, you were an administrator. I was an administrator many, many, many, many years ago. But I think now about what are the things that you think they struggle with the most within their practices?
Katrina Whitehair (09:31):
They're charged with steering the ship. And that means you touch HR, you touch front and back office operations, you touch clinical, you touch financial management, and they're overwhelmed. I think the burnout for an administrator, that factor is real. And they need support. They need technology. They need strong people and sometimes consulting support. And they are the unsung heroes and they are unnoticed a lot of the time, but they're really charged with steering the ship.
Robin Ntoh (10:09):
But they also wear multiple hats.
Katrina Whitehair (10:10):
Too many sometimes.
Robin Ntoh (10:13):
Right. Sometimes you're playing two roles in that practice because it's a small practice. One physician, no more than that. And if you think about it, a lot of times I'll see the administrators, the patient coordinator.
Katrina Whitehair (10:25):
Oh yes, I've been that person before.
Robin Ntoh (10:28):
Yes, that's a fun job. It's frustrating because I also see that they also want to grow and they want to facilitate on their own career in its advancement, but it's difficult because they find themselves stuck. And I also see that there's practices where they don't invest in educating their, sorry, educating their administrators or their staff. And I think that's a huge opportunity, but it's a risk that they take on because they're not spending the time to continuously educate and feed them them information and feed their need and desire to be belonging to something else and to collaborate.
Katrina Whitehair (11:13):
And an administrator's job evolves as the practice evolves. And you may start as that scheduler and manager and maybe you add a second physician or you add auxiliary services or a injector to your practice, and all of a sudden your role has changed and you're doing provider relations and you've taken on more hats. And I've been through that path and started with a one MD practice. And for administrators, when you're in the weeds and you're in the day-to-day, it can be hard to pause and step back and take a look at 360 degrees and say, where do I need support? Do I have the right people on the bus? Are they in the right seat? Am I focused on the right job as an administrator? Can I see above the grass or am I just stuck in the weeds?
Robin Ntoh (12:08):
When you think about these administrators, okay, so we've talked about they're overwhelmed, they're unsung hero, the one that's overlooked oftentimes, where do you think, or what could they do to help their provider see a place for them that gives them the help that they need? How do they execute on getting that facilitated?
Katrina Whitehair (12:33):
How many administrators do you think received performance reviews from their owners?
Robin Ntoh (12:39):
Good point. Well, I mean, do they know what they are? I mean, we've been around this for a long time. I mean, let's face it, they're surgeons, they want to be surgeons, they want to be in the OR. And a lot of 'em are non-confrontational.
Katrina Whitehair (12:53):
They are.
Robin Ntoh (12:55):
And the question is, are they even the right person to do it? I mean, yes, but I think that's where consulting also played a big role when I did it, is actually helping them do that because they didn't always know how to manage it correctly or almost be the mediator, but then provide structure so that there was a healthy review and not something that was just anecdotal.
Katrina Whitehair (13:21):
A hundred percent. And I think that's a component to an administrator acknowledging and recognizing that I'm here and I would like to have a career path as well. As much as I'm career pathing our team, whether that's one or two people or 50 people that I want the same for me too, and let's figure out how we get there so that I stay engaged, I stay excited. I have a path here. As our organization evolves, I get to evolve too as an administrator.
Robin Ntoh (13:53):
Right. I also want to talk about this from the standpoint of the risk a practice takes on or a physician takes on by not investing in building out that staff a little bit or having processes that are more automated. I mean, there's a lot of ways to solve for that anxiety or that added load that we put on them. But one of the things that's important to note is it's a single point of failure for a business. If that administrator walks out the door, you have to ask yourself the question, what impact is that going to have on my business? If they're my patient coordinator and my administrator, did I just upheaval my entire fourth quarter and surgery that I'm going to have? Or maybe it's just as far out as Q1 of next year. I think about those things and we just live in this la-la world where we don't think that it's ever going to happen to us until it happens. And it may not be that they even walk out the door. It may be that something tragic, unfortunately happens and they have to walk away from it and they can't be that administrator anymore. Where does a physician find themselves then, or her?
Katrina Whitehair (14:58):
They find themselves the blind leading the blind. I mean, they're in the dark and they may not have realized how much their administrator was a part of their organization in the operational side. And I do talk to administrators who express this to me, well, what if something happens to me? What's going to happen to the practice? And that's where we start talking about memorializing what we do and how we do what we do as administrators and documenting our processes and our roles because it is unclear to those medical directors and those owners and the leadership team isn't always aware of everything they're involved in. So how do we address that fear? Well, we got to start writing it down somewhere.
Robin Ntoh (15:50):
Yeah. I think that it's daunting to most though. They think of it as a task that they, first of all, when I think about priorities, I've already got two jobs maybe in some cases. Where does that fall in the priority list? Where's my relevance? I go back to critical few, important many. You've got to differentiate that and know, and you've got to put some priorities there. If physicians, this is where I think consulting plays a role or using those third parties that can help you get that done, and then it's done. Now, it doesn't mean it's one and done, but you're at least got a foundation there that you can build upon something's in place. I mean, I often say this to physicians, should you know how to balance out the end of day? No. But should you be able to do it if it push came to shove, is there a process written out that you can reference that walks you through that in its entirety so that you know how to do it?
Katrina Whitehair (16:47):
You're right. And this is where ESM consulting and people like us in this industry can come in and provide that support and that guidance. And we've developed tools and templates for years. BSM Consulting's been around for 45 years.
Robin Ntoh (17:05):
I know you guys have been legacy here, and you started in ophthalmology too. That's what I find impressive. You know that space so well, as well as how it transitions into what the aesthetic space is.
Katrina Whitehair (17:17):
Well, and I'll tell you, I was exposed to BSM consulting when I started in ophthalmology. They said, hey, look, we have this online training platform to teach you how to spell ophthalmology, because I didn't know.
Robin Ntoh (17:28):
Oh, I can tell you stories about that one.
Katrina Whitehair (17:31):
I mean, I was a deer in headlights. I'd never had a healthcare job. I had my degrees, sure, but I had no idea what I was doing. BSM was there. They had already thought about that and developed those tools, and that's where we can lean in and help provide that support and ease that burden and that stress and anxiety, and you don't know where to start. Well, let's give you some guidance on where to start.
Robin Ntoh (17:58):
I think that's also where consulting in aesthetics has thrived because the practices are small and they don't necessarily have the expertise to actually understand the way a business needs to run to scale. So a lot of times physicians say, I don't want to stay this small forever, I want to scale. So repeatable processes are important, but to scale, you have to sometimes start with the framework or infrastructure and build upon it. You don't want to start with something that's not going to grow with you, and that is very relevant in your tech stack.
Katrina Whitehair (18:34):
A hundred percent.
Robin Ntoh (18:35):
So let's talk tech stack.
Katrina Whitehair (18:37):
Let's talk about tech stack. I do a lot of onsite operational assessments for practices that come and say they want to scale. And my question is, what does scaling look like for you? What does that mean? It could mean very different things for different practices, and how do we automate, how do we integrate, how do I make it more efficient? And I go to practices that are on paper charts, paper still today.
Robin Ntoh (19:05):
Well, I go to practices that are EMR and still have a lot of paper today.
Katrina Whitehair (19:09):
There you go.
Robin Ntoh (19:10):
It's a cost of the business too.
Katrina Whitehair (19:11):
And that's part of the onsite assessment is what technologies are we using? Do they talk to each other or are we logging into six different 10 different systems? Some are online, right? We have a separate credit card terminal. We've got photos housed over here. And to them, this is, well, we added this and then two years later we added this. And lo and behold, we've got disparate systems that don't talk to each other. And where do we get automation? It's integrating those into one or maybe two.
Robin Ntoh (19:51):
Well, I also think that a lot of times I've been in practices or talk to practices that have these additional bells and whistles or features or these different, I've got this one for my CRM, I've got this one for my photo management. I've got this one for, there's just so many. But I also find that they use only small components of it.
Katrina Whitehair (20:12):
Exactly.
Robin Ntoh (20:15):
Nor do they even know that their own practice management software may have those features. And so they go looking elsewhere for that, not realizing they already have that, nor do they keep up with the technology. That's the other thing that just amazes me is there's releases. Okay, I'll get on my soapbox on this one. How many of us in the audience listeners have iPhones? Okay, I'm an iPhone user. How much of that iPhone do you actually use that technology that's very sophisticated, comes out with new releases, new features? How much of it do you actually know and understand? It's a good question. Most of us don't know that much about it.
Katrina Whitehair (20:54):
I agree. And same with our EMR systems and our phone systems. And I'll go in and I'll say, oh, you have this? Did you know that you can push out patient education on that platform? Oh, I didn't know. We only used that for photos. Well, we're under utilizing the technology that's already at our fingertips.
Robin Ntoh (21:13):
Well, I think change management plays a role in that too, because I think that even though the technology's there, someone at one point in that office knew that it was there or the information has been made available to them. But changing that, putting that change in place, then training everyone, and then really encouraging that new process to take shape and take hold. That's difficult in practices because people don't like change.
Katrina Whitehair (21:39):
It also lands on the administrator to implement, and they're at and over capacity a lot. So where does that land on their priority list and on the value add that it's going to bring in that day-to-day?
Robin Ntoh (21:52):
Right. Well, I think physicians are just not always thinking about the importance of what they can do to support their administrators, get them more help, but also think about, I'm going to go back to it, that single point of failure, it's a worry. It's a problem. And a lot of practices don't care to think about that, cuz they think they're invulnerable, and then it happens. It's the risk they take. It's just like those practices, they don't really think they're creating or they have any HIPAA violations, but they're small. I mean, they don't think that they're a big enough target, but in reality, it just takes one patient, one incident, one event, and then it just erupts. So I challenge practices as I know you do, to think about how do I protect my practice and protecting your practices, not having a single point of failure.
(22:47):
So we have technology and we think about it from the perspective of there's just too many things. I think the other thing that I worry about in practices is they don't want to put automation in place. We talk about patient experience, I've talked about it so many times on recent podcasts. Okay, let's talk about that. How do you become patient-centric and focus on the patient when they're walking in the door if you are not automating as much as possible? Change management aside really where to practices, what is the pushback? I just don't understand why they won't do it. I know you work with a lot of practices. What are you seeing as to reasons why they don't want to put things in place that are more automated?
Katrina Whitehair (23:30):
Fear of change, fear of the unknown, change management aside, this is how we've always done it. It works good enough for where we are. Right?
Robin Ntoh (23:42):
Well, when you think about it though, now, if you're consulting with a practice, when does that become an opportunity or when does that become for you? This is not the right fit because I can't help you become a high performing practice if you're not willing to really think about where you need to prioritize. And clearly they're not prioritizing that patient-centric experience if they're focused on continuing to do things manually.
Katrina Whitehair (24:07):
Sure. Well, and on the staffing side too, there's a fear around, well, if we automate, then what do I do? What happens to my job? I am pushing a lot of papers and we're not going to be on paper. Well, what am I going to do? You're going to be patient centered. You're going to wow them. You're going to be more involved in the patient experience through the practice, and we can really focus on what they're telling us.
(24:37):
And that's the part where I get curious as a consultant and start asking these physicians and managers and front desk staff, well, what does change look like to you? And do you have any examples of automation that you've seen be successful? And I get curious to see, are we ready? Are we willing? Are we ready? And are we able to implement change? If we are, I'm on board. And if we're not, then maybe it's not time for a consultant yet. Because I don't want you to waste your dollars on consulting services if you're not ready to implement change in your practice.
Robin Ntoh (25:17):
It's a good point. It's a healthy perspective because then you're basically thinking about it the way that they think about patients. I'm not going to be the end all doctor to every person that walks in the door because not everybody's the right candidate or the right patient type for me. And if a physician's really smart and savvy, then they'll take on that approach, just like as a consultant, you want the same thing, but it still baffles me.
Katrina Whitehair (25:44):
It baffles me too. I'll tell you, I will have that conversation with a client and say, we've had a couple coaching calls, but we're talking about the same thing. Do you want to pause? Do we need to switch gears? Do you want to revisit this when you're able to implement? Because I don't want you to waste your dollars, right? I'm here to add value, and if I'm not adding value, I'm going to raise my hand.
Robin Ntoh (26:08):
I'll tell you something we did at Nextech, because yes, we started to consulting division and we recognize the need because it'll tell you, the consultants spend most of their time helping people clean up their system and utilize the features and functions available to them. And then that addresses obviously the workflows. It doesn't really get into, they can, but they don't get into as much of what you do because they spend a lot of time just getting them using the system the way it's intended to be used, best practices. But what we found is that people just needed to dig themselves out of the hole that they have really gotten themselves into because people change, staff come and go, people don't use the system correctly, permissions are not in place. So what we found is that there was a lot of this, I didn't know.
(26:58):
I didn't know you had that feature. I didn't know that the system could do that. You aren't doing enough for me. And a lot of times it was just a lot, it came back to there was change, but it wasn't acknowledged by the practice that those changes, to their own end, impacted them because people came in and did not know how to use the software. Granted, as we continued to improve on the way that software is developed, we think about how intuitive it is and how easy it is. But we also have to think about what other educational components do we put in place. So we institute something called Health Checks, which was a really great concept because we would give almost like a review of their use of the system and provide back to them in a format that let them reference it at any time.
(27:42):
An opportunity to understand, these are things I do well, these are things that I'm not using at all, and then these are things that I've totally upended in the system and I needed to pay attention to it. And so it was a reference point, it is a reference point, whether they do anything about it, it still has been memorialized. So now there's a insight and a knowledge that yes, now there's an awareness. It's there. I know I've got a problem, there's something that I can do about it. Now the question is what do I want to do about it?
Katrina Whitehair (28:12):
I love the health checks. I think it's such a great idea because then there's not the, well, I didn't know.
Robin Ntoh (28:20):
Of course. That's a big problem. Anyway, when you think about all of the things that we deal with with the administrators in general, we've talked about staffing, we've talked about technology. What would be a big takeaway that you would say to any administrator out there? Or maybe it's a message to a physician that they could do to improve their practice?
Katrina Whitehair (28:41):
That's a loaded question.
Robin Ntoh (28:44):
I know you could answer it in 10 different ways, I'm sure, but I'm sure you've got a favorite.
Katrina Whitehair (28:50):
A favorite way to add value and change for a practice, I think it starts with those curious questions and getting people to take a pause, step out of the weeds, step out of your day to day. I want you to see the practice through my eyes as much as I want to see it through yours to discover what's possible.
(29:16):
And I get creative. There's not one solution that fits all practices. Every solution we have is custom, and every practice need isn't exactly the same to the other. So I'm going to pepper them with a lot of questions until I stump them. And they're saying, well, I hadn't thought about that. That's where I dig in. That's where I want to go back in time and figure out where did we get here? How did we get to this point? And what is the biggest aha moment you had? And that's where we're going to start our engagement.
Robin Ntoh (29:48):
It's important, it's powerful, and I give you all the credit for the way that you approach it. Great job.
Katrina Whitehair (29:55):
Thank you so much.
Robin Ntoh (29:56):
Listen, anybody that wants to reach out, tell us how they could reach out to you and get in touch with you if they want to learn more about your services.
Katrina Whitehair (30:02):
Yes. So you can go to the BSM consulting website, and my name will come up, Katrina Whitehair. You can reach me directly by email, kwhitehair@bsmconsulting.com.
Robin Ntoh (30:14):
Beautiful. Thank you so much for being with us today.
Katrina Whitehair (30:16):
Thank you, Robin. It's been a pleasure.
Robin Ntoh (30:18):
It's been a pleasure.
Announcer (30:20):
Thanks for listening to Aesthetically Speaking, the podcast where beauty meets business, presented by Nextech. Follow and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Links to the resources mentioned on this podcast or available in your show notes. For more information about Nextech visit nextech.com or to learn more about TouchMD, go to touchmd.com. Aesthetically Speaking is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.
