The Future of Medical Operations–Efficiency, Empathy, and Virtual Teams

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Highlights of this episode include:

• The biggest challenges hospitals and practices are facing right now
• Practical first steps to take to run more efficiently without burning out
•  Creating a smoother, more compassionate patient journey
• Operational improvements that tend to make the biggest difference
• Principles to follow to ensure new systems/team structures stay fully aligned with HIPAA and patient confidentiality

Kelly Wisness: Hi, this is Kelly Wisness. Welcome back to the award-winning Hospital Finance Podcast. We’re pleased to welcome Timothy Boyle. Tim is the Director of Sales and Business Development at REVA Global Medical, where he leverages nearly a decade of healthcare experience to help hospitals, laboratories, and private practices enhance patient experiences while optimizing revenue performance. Throughout his career, Tim has been dedicated to building solutions that bridge operational efficiency with compassionate care, ensuring that every patient interaction contributes to both satisfaction and sustainability. His leadership in sales and business development has supported numerous organizations in adapting to the evolving demands of modern healthcare. Before beginning his career in healthcare, Tim was a professional hockey player, an experience that instilled in him the values of teamwork, discipline, and perseverance, qualities that continue to drive his success in the medical industry today.

In this episode, we’re discussing the future of medical operations, efficiency, empathy, and virtual teams. Welcome, and thank you for joining us, Tim.

Tim Boyle: Wow, Kelly, what an intro. Thank you so much for having me.

Kelly: We’re happy to have you. Let’s go ahead and jump in. So, you went from professional hockey to healthcare leadership. What mindset or discipline from your playing days most influences how you lead in this industry today?

Tim: Absolutely. That’s a great question. And coming from professional hockey, and really any professional sports, the two biggest things I would say would be being consistent and being coachable. So for me, those are the two things I brought from the hockey world to the business world, was just every day being consistent, trying to bring everything I can to the table and working from that nine to five as hard as I can, given those practices, everything I got, as well as being coachable where even though I am a director of sales here at REVA Global Medical, I need to be able to pivot and I need to take advice wherever I can. And I think everybody should, up to leadership all the way down to the front-end workers who are out in the field every day. So, for me, definitely the two biggest things would be being consistent and being coachable.

Kelly: No, that makes a lot of sense. And it is quite a transition, but it sounds like you’re bringing some great things with you. Healthcare is changing fast. From your perspective, what are the biggest challenges hospitals and practices are facing right now when it comes to operations and staffing?

Tim: Yeah, obviously it’s a case-by-case basis, right? Healthcare practice can stream from anywhere from a small private practice all the way to a big hospital healthcare system. So, it varies from practice to practice, but I would say the biggest thing would be cutting costs and increasing revenue. With the price of labor, with the price of overhead, with even the price of materials increasing, these practices are looking for any way they can to cut costs. And for us, obviously, what we do here at REVA Global with providing a virtual assistant, that will be able to cut down on the admin costs. So, you don’t have to pay that $76-80,000 a year, which the industry averages on those office admins; you can be paying $12 an hour. So that’s really why we kind of got into the practice. I can tell you a little story too, Kelly, if that’s okay.

Kelly: Yeah, of course.

Tim: Yeah, so I come from 1 of 13 kids. So…

Kelly: Oh my.

Tim: Yeah, a lot of children in my family. And my oldest sister, Jen, is actually a primary care provider. Her and her husband, Alan, own a practice down in the south of Boston, Massachusetts. So, what I was actually– I came from the reimbursement space, and I was talking with my sister just about her practice and everything that was going on. And she says across the board with not only her practices, but a lot of practices, they’re having a hard time not only bringing people in to be office admins or to cover workload, but they’re just having a tough time being able handle all the tasks that are in there that they have going on in their practice. And the reason is, is just because the price of that office admin has just gotten so expensive. And without that office admin, obviously, you have a tougher time scheduling appointments, you have a tougher time checking eligibility. And then obviously, at the end of the day, they would have a tougher time collecting on that revenue for the services that you render. So, after talking with her for a long time… I actually have a buddy, Bob, who is also a professional hockey player that owns REVA Global Medical. And I called him just trying to find out what they did over here. And it kind of aligned perfectly, where obviously, healthcare, like you said, it’s changing very fast. And we need to find ways to be pioneers. And here at REVA, I think Bob is a big pioneer because he can take that office admin work off your plate and let doctors worry about that clinical work instead of that clerical work. So, I know that was a long-winded answer, Kelly, but the personal story is what really, really made me understand how fast healthcare is actually changing.

Kelly: No, I mean, I love the story, Tim. And I mean, these really are challenging times, so that’s a very appropriate story. For practices that feel overwhelmed were stretched thin, what are some practical first steps they can take to run more efficiently without burning out their teams?

Tim: Well, kind of like the last question, Kelly, I would say that this is definitely a case-by-case basis for sure. So, what I would say is take a step back and look at your entire workflow. Take a step back and look at what’s falling through the cracks. Do we need to put someone on the front desk? Is it appointment scheduling? Is it the prior authorizations you’re missing out on? When they get there, are you having a tough time verifying insurance? Is there an AR backlog that you got to handle? Obviously, like I said at the beginning, we need to cut costs and increase revenue, but where are we missing out on revenue? So, my answer to this question would definitely be just take a step back, look at your workflow, and see where you really need to implement new processes.

Kelly: Yeah, I love those practical steps. Thanks for sharing those with us. Patient experience is really becoming more important than ever. What have you learned about creating a smoother, more compassionate patient journey?

Tim: Well, patient experience is everything, right? And patient retention comes solely from patient experience. And for us, and what I’ve learned from coming from the technology space now to being here at REVA Global Medical, is the more information gathered upfront or before the appointment is scheduled, the easier and the more delightful that patient experience is going to be. So, for me, it would just be making sure that you handle all those prior authorizations, that scheduling of the appointments, and even the eligibility/insurance verification checks upfront. Because then when they get to the hospital or private practice, they’re not waiting in a waiting room, having to sit there and kind of sour their experience right from the jump. And when all of these tasks are taken care of on the front end, a lot fewer of them seem to fall through the cracks. And obviously, with less of those falling through the cracks, the more revenue that practice is going to be able to gather.

Kelly: Definitely. And I really loved what you said about the delightful patient experience. That’s amazing. That’s what we all should strive for, right?

Tim: Exactly.

Kelly: Yeah. So, you’ve worked with a wide range of providers. What operational improvements tend to make the biggest difference, whether that’s saving time, improving workflow, or enhancing revenue performance?

Tim: Yeah, so going back to our question too, Kelly, about taking a step back and looking at your workflow. Doctors go to school for years and years so that they can handle the clinical tasks in a practice, where there are a lot of practices where these doctors, these nurses are having to handle the clerical tests. So, what I mean by that, the patient care, the building patient plan, expanding the practices, the treatments, the making the care decisions. Those are all those clinical tests, right? But documentation, navigating the EHR, coding, chasing down labs for different tests, the prior auth, those insurance verifications, all the way to that backend billing. That’s all the clerical tasks. So, for us, improving these– improving the patient experience, improving the workflow, and enhancing revenue would all come from making– or not making, but allowing doctors to solely focus on this clinical work, that patient care, and then delegating the tasks of the clerical work. Now, going back to our conversation about how expensive it is for labor law and obviously overhead now, practices are going to have to find ways to be different and try to pivot from these office admins. So, I would take a look back, see where you need to see where you need to pivot, see where you need to change, and then implement that help where you need that change.

Kelly: Yeah. It really does sound like it’s all about improving that patient experience, so that makes a lot of sense to me. Let’s kind of pivot a little bit to something else, but compliance and data security are major concerns in healthcare. What principles do you follow to ensure new systems or team structures stay fully aligned with HIPAA and patient confidentiality?

Tim: Yeah. Absolutely. So, coming from the technology space, obviously, I know– I know that HIPAA is the most important thing for these practices, and HIPAA compliance is everything for us as well. So, we will run audits. All of our VAs will work out of their homes themselves. So, they are working out of one-bedroom apartments or a one-bedroom house. They have their own office. And we run HIPAA audits on their computers on a monthly basis, as well as system checks. So, we do everything to make sure that we check all the boxes for HIPAA compliance, because obviously we know how important it is in this field.

Kelly: Definitely. We do a lot of HIPAA compliance training here as well.

Tim: Oh, it’s everything.

Kelly: Yeah. Exactly. You are passionate about building high-performing teams. What qualities do you look for? And how do you help healthcare leaders cultivate teams that perform well under pressure?

Tim: Well, pressure just comes with performance, right? Or I mean, I’m sorry. Pressure comes with persistence, I would say. So, if you’re not prepared for something, pressure is preparation. So, for me, as a professional athlete, and obviously everyone’s going to feel a little bit of pressure. There was a national football game on last night, a national championship football game on last night. Obviously, those guys are preparing for weeks and weeks and weeks for that moment, but they’re going to feel a little pressure. So, I’m not saying pressure shouldn’t be there. But if you prepare, if you prepare to the best of your ability, then that pressure will be much less. And it should just feel like another day for you. And obviously, in the healthcare field, we go through different months, we go through different quarters where they’re high pressure because we need revenue in the door, and we aren’t getting patients in. So, when I’m building a team, I look for someone who’s going to be prepared, one. You’re going to be consistent, you’re going to be prepared, you’re going to be coachable, and you’re going to have strong work ethic. That’s what you look for in a hockey player and an athlete. And honestly, when I’m building out teams, when you’re able to be coachable, and when you’re able to be consistent, and you come prepared, you can really teach someone how to be successful in the healthcare space. Obviously, they’re not going to be a doctor, but if they work hard, they can be able to help these practices by providing the correct information, the correct consulting that they need to just increase revenue and cut costs like we were talking about at the beginning.

Kelly: Yeah. No. I love that. You made a lot of really good points there. Well, thanks so much, Tim, for sharing your insights with us on the future of medical operations, efficiency, empathy, and virtual teams. Really appreciate it. And if a listener wants to learn more or contact you to discuss this topic further, how best can they do that?

Tim: Absolutely. We are online. We have revaglobalmedical.com, but we’re also on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Riva Global Medical. We’re also on LinkedIn. But if you want to reach out to me personally, I’m also on LinkedIn, Timothy Boyle. And if you want to reach out just to have a conversation, I’m all ears, but that’s where you can find me.

Kelly: Great. Thank you for providing that. And thank you all for joining us for this episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. Until next time…

If you have a topic that you’d like us to discuss on The Hospital Finance Podcast or if you’d like to be a guest, drop us a line at update@besler.com.

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