The Most Meaningful Transformation I Witnessed In My Career Was Because Of a Childs Smile
The story of how an autism treatment provider uses their optimizations to change lives.
Names have been altered to protect privacy.
Wordcount: 1,626
Reading Time: 8 min
When you create something truly impactful you will notice
I left the hotel at 8am. It was only a short drive over to the clinic. With my coffee in hand I got into my 4Runner and began to drive. This was the first time I would see a behavior health clinic in person.
It was early June 2023, the sun was out and the Colorado mountains stood in the distance. I parked my car, got out and followed the signs along the pathway. When I turned the first corner I saw the entrance door with hand drawn pictures of suns and elephants and other animals in the side panel window.
Meg opened the door and motioned me in. With a warm smile on her face she gave me a hug and told me how amazing it is that I am coming in person to check in on them. When I stepped through the door I did not know that I would be leaving with a sense of profound fulfillment because of what we had built.
What Our Software Did For Meg
Meg is a wonderful person. Ever since she was in school she wanted to help families with kids with autism. It has always been her goal and her passion. To her a child with autism is incredibly special and her love for what she does shows in how she interacts with kids.
The first thing she showed me was a special lock on the front door. You could open the door from the outside when the clinic was open, but you needed a quick code to get out. This is how they protect kids from running outside.
Another thing that struck me is the incredible amount of patience Meg has. When she worked with Taylor it was clear that she loves helping him learn. Taylor was one of the newer kids to the clinic. You could tell that he has a lot of trouble communicating as compared to a neuro typical kid. But when he started on a puzzle, your jaw would drop on the floor.
In behavior therapy clinicians are busy, and I mean busy. The kids require constant supervision and attention. The best way to think of it is to take a 4 year old who is wild. That alone is a job, but now add to it that communicating and giving instructions doesn’t work at all. Neuro typical kids develop a sense for you. Some kids with autism do not have the ability to do that. That is one of the reasons why they are with Meg.
During the day Meg has no time for anything but the kids. Yet HIPAA requires that each session has notes and summaries. All the administrative work has to be done after. So what this means is that part of the allocated insurance reimbursed time is for paperwork. This is especially heavy for new patients. This is where our software Knowetic comes in.
We developed an AI supported Care Navigation Module which helped clinicians like Meg standardize the intake process of new patients. What this enabled Meg to do was spend on average 45 minutes to 1 hour less on administrative work per kid, because after you interview the family it generates all the reports for you.
When Meg works with the kids there is critical information she needs to know:
Does the child have siblings?
If yes, what are their names?
Do we have a favorite toy?
A favorite stuffed animal?
Can the child swim?
Does the child seek heights while outside?
Does the child know what a road is and the danger associated with it?
Does the child have a peanut allergy?
The list goes on and on. But when you run a clinic with 20 patients it is impossible to remember all of this in the beginning. Enter our AI LLM KnowYeti.
KnowYeti reads all the reports, session notes and medical records pertaining to the patient. Meg can then on the spot ask KnowYeti all the important questions and receive the answers within seconds. You see, KnowYeti lets Meg chat with the patient's medical history.
Meg told me that in the most severe cases (lot’s of medical and therapy history) she was able to reduce the intake and initial treatment time from 15 hours down to 5. That is an incredible amount of time saved, which could translate into an entire new patient entering the clinic for every 3 patients run through our software. The revenue implications are quite noticeable.
But that is not what Meg did.
The Most Admirable And Amazing Example Of What My Clients Can do
Imagine you and your spouse both work full time jobs. You have a mortgage, car payments and you’re just making ends meet. Finally the biggest blessing of your life arrives. You have a child. But your child is diagnosed with autism.
Depending on where on the spectrum your child is, the amount of attention you now need to devote is indescribable. It is fair to say that is almost impossible without professional help. And even if you are lucky enough to have an insurance plan that covers ABA (many do not) your life as you know it will no longer be possible.
For so many families this is a reality. They can barely make ends meet, they require incredible amounts of help and they simply want to feel that they are being taken care of. But healthcare is also a tough business and while clinicians and clinics do their best, sometimes they need to push time savings down to the bottom line. It is simply the reality of the system.
Meg did something entirely different. She took this extra time and did not add more patients to the clinic. She did not take extra time off, go home early or give some staff more vacation time. The team sat down and decided that every single minute of extra time will be spent talking to the family. It will be spent giving them:
instructions for at home
An extra hug when they need it
A follow up phone call out of the blue
Extra time to let them share their concerns
More undivided attention and focus on their quality of life
Simply put, what Meg gave families was hope. Hope that there is a path ahead. Hope that even in the toughest moments they know Meg and her team are there to support them.
True Transformations Lie at The Intersection Where Caring Meets Technology
Yes, in this particular case we are talking about a fully developed software solution. We worked on this for over a year with a full development team. This was a project in the hundred of thousands of dollars, with investor backing and a lot of dedication. But transformations in peoples lives do not require thousands of dollars in investment.
When organizations operate with a culture of caring, miraculous improvements can happen. The key to understanding what creates lasting change is that technology is but the means by which caring is instituted. But it is not the origin of where the change is created. If you care about your team, you notice their stresses and frustrations and you simply want to find a better solution.
When teams operate with less stress, more fulfillment and a feeling of belonging to the overall goal they work harder. It is not rocket science, it is emotional science. Empower your team, make them feel part of the process and you care about them and you can harness efficiency enabled by technology that you wouldn’t believe.
But the culture and mindset must come first. No AI in the world will function like KnowYeti unless the people using it want to help the family. KnowYeti could have also been built to read financial reports and create scheduling plans. But because of the love and care of the clinicians we work with and our incredible clinician founder, KnowYeti was built to change the lives of families one question at a time.
When Taylor's Mom Picked Him Up, I Saw A Smile That Will Be With Me Forever
Taylor was one of those complex cases. Meg told me that she saved around 8 hours of time because of the way the technology manifested caring. That is an entire day of time. Of course spread over the course of a few weeks, but it doesn’t matter, because each day you can channel those savings into the family. That is exactly what Meg did.
When Taylor's mom arrived Meg did not have to worry about too much administrative work. She did not push the savings into new patients so she had extra time. Her and Taylor's Mom talked. They spent time together. Meg could tell her about the day Taylor had, the puzzle he completed (and ehhh…. I am telling you, impressive puzzle skills), the games he played and the progress he made today.
The smile on Taylor's face, the calmness in his moms eyes and the wonderful picture of all three of them smiling together made me realize that I am part of the most profound technology I have ever been part of.
We can all harness incredible time savings if we only look for them.
The technology to make it happen is not hard to learn and is readily available.
I teach it and coach it to clients all the time.
The big question is not “how do I save time”, but rather
“What will I do with it”.