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All right, y’all, welcome back to the podcast. Glad to be here. Very glad to be talking about technology today. I love technology. I’ve talked a lot about technology throughout the history of the podcast, but I realized that I’ve never done an episode where I did a rundown of all the technology that I’m currently using.
We’ve talked about different pieces here and there, but today is a big episode all about everything that goes into running the practice. So, I’ll be talking about all sorts of different pieces of software, how they all fit together, and which ones I truly couldn’t live without.
If you are, let’s see, which masterminds are open? Y’all, I’m forgetting my own call to action here. I think at this point in time, I may have one spot in the Beginner Practice Mastermind and one spot in the Intermediate Practice Mastermind. If either of those fit for you, you can get more information and schedule a pre-group call at thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting.
So these mastermind groups are groups of 6 psychologists and myself as a facilitator. We talk about any number of things relevant to your stage of practice, whether a beginner or more in that middle phase where you’re trying to dial things in and just be less overwhelmed. And there’s a big accountability component. There is a lot of support. There’s a lot of coaching. And it’s been super cool over the years to see these mastermind cohorts grow together over the five or six months that we meet.
So again, if that’s interesting, thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting and see if the group is a good fit. Both are starting in mid-November. So don’t wait too long.
All right. Let’s jump to this episode on technology.
Okay, everybody. Hey, let’s talk about some technology. I am excited about this one. This is really interesting to list out all of the pieces of technology that I use. It’s a long list, but I’m going to go through the list and try to articulate how everything fits together. So, let’s get to it.
First of all, let me talk about the EHR system that we use. EHR- Electronic Health Record. This is how you keep track of notes, appointments, billing, insurance claims, patient accounting, all sorts of other things, calendar, all that stuff.
We have a little bit of a complex system, but it works. So at the core is our main EHR which is TherapyNotes. I’ve talked about TherapyNotes a lot. I’ve done an EHR review series on my YouTube channel. There are lots of considerations for an EHR, but I have been with TherapyNotes for probably 10 or 12 years now. I really like them. I think that they are working steadily to add new features that are helpful for us as testing folks, but it was the easiest to use right out of the box for me. So our main EHR is TherapyNotes. TherapyNotes takes care of appointments, insurance claims, billing, accounting, notes, all that stuff.
Layered on top of TherapyNotes are a few things. We definitely utilize IntakeQ pretty heavily to send our intake forms. IntakeQ is a system that started out as software to send forms, to get HIPAA compliant signatures on forms. They have since expanded into a full-blown EHR. I also reviewed IntakeQ as a stand-alone EHR in the review series which I’ll link in the show notes. But for our part, we use IntakeQ layered on top of TherapyNotes simply because one of the areas that TherapyNotes does not do so well is with forms. So we use the IntakeQ to supplement and make the forms part of the practice super easy.
So when clients schedule a new appointment, they get an email from IntakeQ with a link to all of our intake paperwork, releases of information, and so forth, and that IntakeQ paperwork automatically gets fed into Google Drive, which I will talk about in just a moment. So, when the client fills out their IntakeQ paperwork, it is integrated with Google Workspace and it automatically creates a folder with the client’s name and puts that intake paperwork into the folder, which is great.
Also layered on top of TherapyNotes, TherapyNotes has its own calendar, but some of us also use our Google Calendar or Google Workspace Calendar to supplement TherapyNotes particularly if we are scheduling telehealth appointments. Now, TherapyNotes does have a telehealth feature, but for the most part, we have not migrated over to using that simply because we did not start using it at the beginning of the pandemic and we got into our routines and continue to use other software that I’ll talk about in a second.
So some of us use Google Calendar layered on top of TherapyNotes. TherapyNotes does connect to your Google calendar. It will export your appointments on the Google calendar so that you can see them. You cannot alter them from Google calendar and have them actually changed in TherapyNotes, but it’s helpful to see your appointments at least in Google calendar.
I also use Google calendar because that is where our family calendar resides. And I like to have all of those calendars in one place. So I export my TherapyNotes calendar to my Google Calendar which also has my kids’ school calendar, our family calendar, the soccer schedule, all that stuff.
All right. The last piece of calendaring/EHR software that we use is Acuity. I have not talked a lot about Acuity on the podcast as far as I can remember, but we use Acuity within the practice to schedule intake phone calls.
We have moved from a model where we’re trying to answer every phone call live to a model where we direct all incoming clients to book an intake phone call. To do that, we use Acuity. We have a booking link on our website. The client goes in, or the potential client goes in, books a call on Acuity, and our admin team conducts that phone call at the appropriate time. Once we have the client information, they are screened, we determine if they’re an appropriate client. Then we move all that data over to TherapyNotes and actually input them into our system.
I also use Acuity for my consulting appointments. Acuity also connects or integrates with Google Calendar. So I feed everything into Google calendar. That’s where my schedule lives these days.
Okay. So that’s it for EHR, calendaring, and client and appointment management.
As far as file management, like I mentioned a bit ago, we are heavily invested in Google Workspace. Google workspace includes everything in the Google universe except it is HIPAA compliant. So it is a great option for healthcare. This includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Chat, Google Voice, Text, Google Drive which is a cloud-based storage system for all your electronic files. We use all of those tools pretty heavily.
For file management, we keep everything in Google Drive. We do not upload or transfer files over to TherapyNotes. We keep everything in Google Drive. As far as other file management, I still write all of my reports in Word for the time being. I would love to use Google Docs, but I don’t like the formatting. I just find that word is easier to work in for. It’s a little bit inefficient. I would love to find a way to use Google docs, but like I said, I just can’t get the formatting to work the way that I wanted partly because I built a lot of our templates in Word initially, and a lot of our recommendations banks. Our recommendation sets are built in Word, and it’s really hard to transfer them over. The formatting does not transition very well. And so, they look weird in Google docs. So I just continue to do everything in word. I am working on a way to change that though.
Now, as far as communication, there are a few tools that we use there as well. It’s primarily in the Google universe. We use Google Voice as our phone system. It allows for a phone tree which is great. It lets the calls roll over from one admin staff to the next if someone doesn’t answer. And the thing I love about Google Voice is that it transcribes voicemails and sends you an email with the voicemail transcription.
So we use Google Voice for our phone system. We also use Google Text, I guess, it’s what it’s called. It’s within Google Voice, but you can text as well. That is also HIPAA compliant. We really appreciate that. Like I said, I use Gmail for email. We use Google Chat as our intra office communication platform. So this is how we talk with each other within the practice. And again, it’s all HIPAA compliant. We can share confidential information. We have various channels or groups or threads that we talk under. So we have all of our communication basically in the Google universe.
The only thing that falls outside of that is my consulting and other communication. So I use Slack to talk with and hang out with some other psychologists friends. And I use Facebook messenger here and there simply because I’m on Facebook so much managing the Facebook group for The Testing Psychologist Community. I don’t prefer messenger. I honestly do not like messenger as a communication platform, but it is a part of the deal being on Facebook so much.
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All right, let’s get back to the podcast.
As far as telehealth, we use Google Meet within the practice. I think all of our therapists use Google Meet. I prefer Zoom because I’m only doing evaluations and Zoom has the capability to do two things:
1) you can have multiple windows open for the same call. If you’re screen sharing and so forth, it works really well for 2 monitors.
2) You can minimize zoom and it will create a tiny window that you can move around the screen, which I love because then that allows me to have the Zoom window up and be participating in the call, but I can also have other applications open. For example, taking notes during intakes or feedback and whatnot which I really appreciate being able to multitask in that way.
That’s one thing that I did not mention a little bit ago with Google Drive, taking notes. So I take notes in a Google Doc for every evaluation that I do. So when I jump on the intake call, I create a Google Doc within the client’s folder which was already created by IntakeQ when they filled out their paperwork. So, I create a document in that folder. It’s an intake note template. I take notes via that document when I’m on the Zoom call.
Now, I did that before we moved to telehealth as well. So when people were here in the office, I would just take notes on my computer while we were chatting. I think I mentioned before that I am a pretty good touch typer. So I can maintain eye contact and carry on a conversation pretty well while taking notes. I don’t think it’s too disruptive to the rapport with the client. So that’s helpful.
Let’s see, moving on, task management. We are in the middle of a transition with task management. We’ve used Asana for a long time, but as you know, I have recently within the last six months moved over and really gotten on board with Doc Health.
Doc Health has a task management system specifically for healthcare professionals. It’s HIPAA compliant. It’s got all kinds of cool features. I did a whole episode with the founder of Doc Health a few months ago. I’ll list that in the show notes. You can definitely check that out, but the short story is that Doc Health allows you to create workflows specific to your practice.
For example, there is a testing workflow that keeps track of all the tasks that go into the testing process from intake to testing to feedback. I think there are maybe like 20 separate tasks to carry out throughout that process like sending a behavior checklist and scoring your tests, and writing the report. So there are tons of tasks like we know in the testing process and Doc Health allows you to create workflows with all those tasks and assign that workflow to each client as they come in and you can check off those tasks as you complete them.
So it’s a great way to keep track of your evaluations and where you’re at in that process and make sure that nothing slips through the cracks. So yes, we are starting to convert fully over to Doc Health. That is one lesson that I’ve learned is that once you get invested in a software ecosystem, it is challenging to convert over both from a training standpoint and just the logistical standpoint, but we’re doing that.
As far as what I would call random productivity, there are a few apps that I use. TextExpander is one of them. I’ve talked about TextExpander a lot on the podcast. If you have not heard of it somehow, the quick story is that TextExpander is a piece of software that allows you to compress longer pieces of information into a very short Phrase sort of like a shortcut or a what… sorry, my mind just totally went blank, …an abbreviation, something like that.
For example, I have one particular paragraph that I often put in reports that explains what ADHD is. So I created a shortcut called ADHD explanation. And all I have to do is type that phrase that expands into this much longer paragraph. So you create shortcuts that then expand into longer strings or paragraphs or even entire report templates. So TextExpander is great. That saves me a lot of time each day.
I also use something called the Magnet App. So if you have dual monitors, the Magnet App is super helpful. It’s actually helpful if you just have one monitor or one screen. The Magnet App is an app that lets you drag windows around your screen and place them in particular positions within the screen. And it does it automatically just based on where you drag the window. It’s hard to describe verbally, but if you look it up, I think you will get an understanding for why this is helpful.
So if you have say a screen open with your word document and a window open with some scoring software and you’re trying to convert scores over to a word document, you can drag the windows into specific positions, and they kind of snap into place in the shape and size that you want them to be without you having to manually position them or manually change the size of the window. So you could set it up where, or you could drag a window where it just takes up a quarter of your screen or a half of your screen. It could be the top half, the bottom half, the left half, the right half, so on and so forth. So it’s really nice for arranging multiple windows.
Also random productivity. I use Zapier for a number of things within our practice. So Zapier is a piece of software that allows other software to talk to each other. For example, I have it set up where if we get a referral faxed in, I have it set up where it automatically goes into our Google drive, and then it automatically sends an email to my admin team to let them know that a new fax has come in.
Zapier has integrations with probably thousands of software programs and there are a million ways that you could use it. So, if you ever find yourself thinking, oh, I wish that would happen automatically, Zapier is a great option to look into because you can often connect two pieces of seemingly disconnected software with Zapier and create some really cool automations.
Let’s see. I think that’s it. Actually, that’s not it. Sorry. There are two other things. I use Canva for graphic design- creating flyers, email templates, graphics, anything like that. And then I use QuickBooks for accounting.
So, that’s a big list of a bunch of random software, but hopefully, you get some idea of how they work together and integrate with one another. I, of course, would love to find a way to compress the EHR software. I think that’d be great. I would love to find a way to integrate task management with the EHR. I know that Doc Health is working on integrations. I think with IntakeQ and maybe some others. So there’s a lot of room to get more streamlined, but these are all the pieces of software that come up within my practice.
Now, as far as the ones that I don’t think I could live without, certainly Google Workspace. I feel like that’s cheating because Google workspace encompasses so many aspects of our practice and there are so many facets to Google workspace. I mean, it’s email, it’s chat, it’s telehealth, it’s the phone system. It counts for a lot. So, I definitely couldn’t live without that.
The other is our EHR. I have no idea what we would be doing if we were trying to keep all these records on paper somehow. That seems absolutely crazy. I know that there are folks out there. I know that there are some of you who are doing it. I don’t know how you do it, especially if you are taking insurance. So the EHR is a crucial part of our practice.
And then the last one was a tough call, but I went with TextExpander simply because I use TextExpander so much at this point. I’ve created so many snippets or dot phrases, if you’re familiar with epic or just shortcuts is what I’m referring to. I have so many snippets that expand into so many different things. It’s unconscious at this point that as far as using them within my day-to-day workflow. And so, if I had to go back, like if TextExpander is getting updated or something, I have to actually use or type out those phrases as they literally are. It’s very challenging to train my brain in that different way.
So those are my top three that I can’t live without. I’m always on the lookout for new technology and things that will improve efficiency within the practice. So, I would love to hear from you if there are any other things that you are using that you just can’t live with. You can look out for the Tech Tools thread in The Testing Psychologist Community on Facebook, or you can shoot me a message and maybe I will feature your preferred technology in a future episode.
So thank you as always for tuning in. I love talking about technology and hope that this has been helpful for some of you.
If you are looking for group coaching and accountability experience, I would invite you to check out The Testing Psychologist mastermind groups that are starting up soonish. Very soon. I think we have a spot or two left in the intermediate group and the beginner group like I said in the beginning. So you can schedule a pre-group call at thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting and we’ll figure out if it’s a good fit for you.
Okay, y’all, take care and stay tuned for more clinical and business episodes.
The information contained in this podcast and on The Testing Psychologist website is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this podcast or on the website is intended to be a substitute for professional, psychological, psychiatric, or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Please note that no doctor-patient relationship is formed here, and similarly, no supervisory or consultative relationship is formed between the host or guests of this podcast and listeners of this podcast. If you need the qualified advice of any mental health practitioner or medical provider, please seek one in your area. Similarly, if you need supervision on clinical matters, please find a supervisor with an expertise that fits your needs.