Entrepreneur Spotlight: Scribe Partners Saves Providers Valuable Time

When most twenty-somethings are about to graduate from college, they spend the majority of their time job hunting. Once they ultimately (phew) land one, they get right to work on establishing themselves in their careers. For pre-med students, their story is a bit different. Most of these students spend their time searching for locations to take the MCATs, waiting on a medical school acceptance letter and then, hopefully, beginning medical school the following year. In case you didn't catch that, that's correct: most pre-med students are stuck waiting an entire year to begin medical school. What can they do in the meantime? Take an unrelated 9-5 job? An unpaid medical internship? Bartending? It's obvious that there haven't been a lot of options for these in-betweeners until now.

Meet Lauren Hartigan, COO of Scribe Partners. Lauren herself was once a pre-med student and noticed this glaring issue once she graduated from school. This student turned entrepreneur knew that there was a better solution and instead of wishing for one, did something about it. 

To learn a little more about Lauren Hartigan, check out what she had to say when we interviewed her!

Tell Us About your Company

Scribe Partners trains pre-med and medical (MD, NP, PA, RN) students about Patient Note Creation. Following educational training taught by Scribe Partners' certified staff, students are assigned to physicians to assist them with documenting patient visits as economically and as efficiently as possible following all major CPT and ICD-9 rules and regulations. Essentially, these "scribes" will have the opportunity to continue their education and preparation for medical school while enhancing the lives of the physicians by improving quality-of-care for their patients while saving them time and money.

What was your background prior to starting Scribe Partners?

Prior to Scribe Partners I was involved in a pre-medical graduate program at Cornell University.  During my college career I was a highly involved pre-medical student. I shadowed and interned with many providers from various specialists as well as volunteered my summers at local hospitals. However, it wasn't until an advisor at Cornell introduced me to the medical scribe opportunities in Califorinia and Texas that I started to think about scribe opportunities in New England. Through my research I discovered that, even though Boston is the hub of healthcare on the East Coast, the idea of medical scribes had not taken off yet. Therefore, as soon as I graduated I joined forces wth a chart auditing company, who was willing to fund my idea, and we started Scribe Partners of New England. Today we have over 50 students placed at provider's offices all across New England since June 2014. 

What was the tipping point that led you to entrepreneurship?

As a pre-medical student graduating from Cornell University and Providence College with future aspirations of becoming a physician, I knew I wanted to take a year to really explore the medical field before I applied to medical school. I wanted an opportunity to get as close as possible to a hands on experience with the physician to truly immerse myself in the medical field. Before graduating, I had heard of job opportunities in California and Texas for medical scribes. A Medical scribe, I was told, is someone who works directly with the physician to help them write their notes as well as assists in other daily tasks in the office. I thought to myself, "this is a great idea!", however I don't want to go to California or Texas. I then thought to myself, "what a great opportunity this would be if I could bring this experience to the Boston area!" and thus Scribe Partners was born!!

What roadblocks did you overcome to reach the point that you are at today?

One of the most difficult parts of running Scribe Partners has been spreading the word about how great this opportunity can be for both the providers and the students. Where the students see a rare opportunity in New England to have an unheard of, behind the scenes experience before medical school, the providers see a possible risk on disrupting their daily work flow and a pathway to the danger of incorrect documentation. What we have found however is that this has not been the case and in fact we have polled quite the opposite results. Overwhelmingly, our studies show that the medical scribes truly do help increase productivity and assist in better documentation.

What we strive to do at Scribe Partners is market the facts. Scribes have truly been successful already in California and Texas and there is no reason it couldn't take off here in Boston, the hub of healthcare on the East Coast. Scribes truly make provider's days easier by increasing productivity and efficiency. They ultimately help the provider get away from the computer and get back to face time with their patients. Going forward, we are looking to continue to spread the word and help prove how helpful medical scribes truly can be. 

How would you define success in terms of entrepreneurship? 

Success to me is never giving up even when you are ahead. There is always room for growth and improvement in the health care field. Success for me and this company would be to continue to spread this opportunity for both providers and student scribes all across New England. In many ways I see it as a way to create better and more competent providers for tomorrow. I feel this opportunity almost reflects an opportunity for apprenticeship for future doctors, NPs, RNs, PAs and Nurses. There is so little that pre-medical students can do before medical school that would give them the opportunity to truly immerse themselves in the lives of the providers. I feel this is as close as we can get without actually becoming a provider and I hope that it will give all of these students a much more powerful idea of what becoming a provider and caring for a patient truly can mean. 

What are your plans for the future?

My current plans for the future are to continue to spread the word about Scribe Partners all across New England. When it takes off, down the road, I would ultimately like to spread it to the Mid West. 

Do you have any advice for up and coming entrepreneurs?

My advice for up and coming entrepreneurs is never say never. I started out in school as political science major then switched to Biology and here I am today a business owner and entrepreneur in the health care industry. If you believe in something and truly can find a "need" for your idea in the business world - you will never regret taking a shot at it. There is no need to stick to the cookie-cutter jobs if you do not want to. You only have one life to live - make the most of it. 

Find out how you can become a scribe by visiting the Scribe Partners Website today! 

Entrepreneur Spotlight: Rob Hale, CEO and Founder of Granite Telecommunications

We love to feature up and coming entrepreneurs. For this month, however, we decided to take things in a different direction. We had the pleasure of speaking with Rob Hale, CEO and Founder of Granite Telecommunications. What started as a dream to build a small sales company blossomed into a reality of a multimillion dollar organization serving Fortune 500 companies across America. Rob Hale encompasses what all budding entrepreneurs hope to one day achieve. What set him apart from the rest? He never gave up.

To learn a little more about Rob Hale, check out what he had to say when we interviewed him!

Tell us about your company

We started Granite Telecommunications in 2002. We intended to build a physical phone company and the way we planned to do that is to strike a wholesale agreement with Verizon. We were very fortunate to get a bit of business from Wal-Mart and Walgreens in 2002 when they asked us to discount their telephone lines through wholesale in Boston. Shortly thereafter, they asked us to discount their existing telephone lines for all of New England and then ultimately, they asked for the same thing for all of the Northeast. They eventually told us “This discounting of our telephone lines is good for us and we want to do it for the rest of the country, and we want to do it with you”. At this time we had to make a decision. Are we going to do what we set out to do and build a physical phone company in a region of the country, or are we going to become a national wholesaler? We opted for the latter because we determined that if it would be useful to Wal-Mart and Walgreens, then it would be useful to many others. Since then, we have expanded dramatically and created 1,250 American jobs. People always ask “How did you get this great idea?” We didn’t. It was their idea and we just listened.

What was your background prior to starting Granite Telecommunications?

I graduated from school in 1988 and in '88, I went to work for MCI in a sales role and loved it. I then briefly worked for an agent for New England Telephone Company and in 1990, my father and I started a phone company called Network Plus, which we ran from 1990-2002. In 2002 we started Granite Telecommunications. I have been in sales on the customer side all my life.

What was the tipping point that led you to entrepreneurship?

Being born in my house! My father was an entrepreneur; He was the original importer of Laura Ashley to the United States. He would hold sales meetings in the living room and when I was a kid, I remember sitting around watching them interact and I thought “This is what I want to do”. Certainly by the time I was a teenager, I knew I wanted to run a small sales company.

What obstacles have you overcome to get where you are today?

I’ve overcome a host of them. I guess the most pertinent one would be when the company Network Plus that we started in 1990, was forced into bankruptcy in 2002. That year I received death threats, lawsuits; I even had to let go of 400 employees on a conference call. I lost $1.4 billion worth of paper money. There aren’t too many bad things that can happen to a businessman that didn’t happen to me between 2000 and 2002. I would say 2001 and 2002 were very trying years and yet now, Granite is almost a Billion Dollar Company, where Network Plus was a 300 Million Dollar Company. Granite is profitable, the team is better and the experience is much better. I encountered some negativity that not many people do and yet, because we had a great team and strong connections, we were able to rebuild a better company.

How would you define success in terms of entrepreneurship and what are your plans for the future?

I think that success in terms of entrepreneurship is probably risk-taking at all levels. As far as my plans for the future, I would like to see Granite grow. I am focused on expansion and as an entrepreneur, with each goal I achieve, I want to go even bigger.

Do you have any advice for up and coming entrepreneurs?

The most fun you’ll have in life is running your own company. Don’t create a company to make money. If you are just in it to make money, It wont be fun and you probably wont be good at it. Well then again, you might be good at it, but you wont create an environment where people want to do it with you. I think a lot of people can create small companies focused on profit, but I think you would have a very hard time creating a strong team if your real core focus is just profit. People want to be rewarded emotionally and people want to feel as though they are part of something that is special and good. I would say pursue any endeavors that seem fun and if you’re good at it and you work hard, you will probably be financially rewarded in the long run.

Aside from being a hugely successful organization, Granite Telecommunications is conscientious of charitable causes. Back in March, Granite challenged and encouraged 428 of their employees to shave their heads in their "Shave to Save" movement, donating money for each person who participated. They ended up raising $2.1 million to donate towards cancer research. Granite also participated in the popular "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge" and raised $200,000 to donate toward the cause.

Here are a few ways you can get in contact with Granite Telecommunications!

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Entrepreneur Spotlight: Vayda Girl

A few months back we stumbled upon a local small business that we are thrilled to share with you. Vayda Girl Headband is the headband for the every day woman, whether you're going to yoga, running errands or going out with friends. The headbands have an edgy, vintage look that can make any outfit. Creators Jessica and Audrey encourage their customers to design their own headbands, making it a personal experience and a way to share one's own style. You choose from five different styles (knotted girl, twisted girl, turbid girl, bow girl and classy girl) and then pick your print. The turn around is quick and we can guarantee you will be satisfied. Vayda Girl Headbands are also available for purchase in yoga studios, boutiques and hair salons in Rhode Island and Boston.

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To learn a little more about Jessica and Audrey, check out what they had to say when we interviewed them.

Tell us about your company

We (Jessica Cooper and Audrey Johnson) founded Vayda Girl Headbands in March 2014. We wanted to offer a product of quality – something that fit perfectly, was trendy but with a vintage vibe, and that included more of a customer experience. This vision led to Vayda Girl Headbands – handmade to order headbands for the yogi, trend-setter, or chic city girl.

“Vayda Girl is for the modern woman who loves a good vintage throwback. And to be honest, it's a way to chic-ly hide hair either down or pulled back that may be in need of a wash and style. This is a great way to look good without having to put in a ton of effort.” Caitlin Gambee (The Examiner)

We believe that individual style should be exciting, fun, and evolve. Our business is here to let our customer decide what that is for him/her. We love helping our customer enhance his/her individual style by offering a platform to design a personal headband. Our website prompts you to select a print and then a style, and the headband is made to order.

The energy behind Vayda Girl headbands was generated through a love for creating and for bringing out the confidence in all women. Our inspiration comes from an array of funky to classic fabrics found in a variety of places.

What was your background prior to starting Vayda Girl and developing your headband line?

Our backgrounds are in Marketing, Management, and serial entrepreneurship.

What was the tipping point that led you to entrepreneurship?

We (Jessica Cooper and Audrey Johnson) founded Vayda Girl Headbands in March 2014.

We have always had a love for trendy accessories that have a vintage feel, and had been searching for a great fitting headband that also looks great. When we could not find exactly what we envisioned, we created it!  We started wearing our headbands to yoga, around town, to work - and everywhere we went people would ask us where we purchased our cute funky headband. Based on an unexpected interest from our network, we started selling them, and that is the simple organic start to our fun start up! We purchased fabrics, and started to play around with them, and after much trial and error, we had 6 styles we truly loved.

What obstacles did you overcome to get where you are today?

Besides wrapping our heads around creating a website, the legal needs of a new entity, deciding our business model, logistics and pricing, our obstacles really stem from being a two-woman show with a lot of other responsibility on our plates.

We want to grow faster than our time allows, and want to respond to every opportunity to get our name out there, but sometimes we truly do not have the time or resources. We are learning how to manage this better, but it definitely comes with long nights and weekends. We wouldn’t trade that for anything – it feels so good to watch something grow, we can’t stop now!

Which social media platform do you think has worked best to build your brand?

 Instagram. We had an Instagram account before we had a website. We were able to create a powerful Instagram community which naturally led to the need for a website to better manage interest and sales.

What are your plans for the future?

We have always had big dreams and love to talk about how we visualize our life (lives) shaping up. This start up is no exception – we want to grow Vayda Girl so we can continue to see the excitement of new women (and men!) designing their own made to order headband.

Do you have any advice for up and coming entrepreneurs?

We think it’s all about mindset. We love to think aloud about businesses we could start, how we would do it differently that what already exists, and how it really isn’t that hard to create a successful product if you truly put yourself in the consumers head. *and by that hard, I mean, we fully recognize how much effort goes into creating something out of thin air, but we like to think that if you really set your mind to understanding the user, it starts to come together on its own. We are lovers of brainstorming and envisioning the final product, and I think that natural inclination has allowed us to really follow this through.

So our advice, put yourself in the customers shoes – what would you like your experience to be if you bought X product/service?  Once you determine what experience you would like, you create that, and people who share that same ideal will become a follower of your product/service. Like attracts like – you don’t have to please everyone. Be true to your vision, and you will attract those who support it.  

Jessica and Audrey have been friends since Jr. High School and grew up in Warwick, RI. Audrey currently resides in Rhode Island with her three small children and Jessica in the North End of Boston. Jessica has lived in Boston since graduating from UMass in 2009, and has a full time job based in Boston separate from this passion – she also teaches yoga when and where she can squeeze it in. Audrey is a super-mom of three beauties and has no lack of energy when it comes to managing her family, business, and visualizing the future of Vayda Girl. Jessica and Audrey feel very lucky in their relationship to each other and are excited to continue growing their brand together. 

Here are ways you can connect with Vayda Girl!

Instagram: @Vaydagirlheadbands

Twitter

Facebook

Website

And of course, check out their cute headbands at any of these locations:

• Tropical Gangsters, clothing and accessories boutique (375 Thames St. Newport, RI)
• David-Max, home goods and artist boutique (187 Main St. East Greenwich, RI)
• Salon X, hair salon (3087 Post Rd. Warwick, RI)
• Glistening Goddess, spray tan and consignment shop (65 Weybosset St. Providence, RI & 622 Killingly St. Johnston, RI) *COMING JULY 28th, 2014!
• North End Yoga, yoga studio offering apparel  (256 Hanover St, Boston, MA)
• Savas Studios, clothing and accessories boutique (456 Hanover St. Boston, MA)
• And various festivals, craft shows, and farmers markets by season.

Entrepreneur Spotlight: SmartCode

Every once in a while, a new technology emerges that disrupts the market. SmartCode is that groundbreaking new product.

We at HTM Communications had the pleasure of sitting down with serial entrepreneur and tech-guru Kyle Schutt; Co-founder of technology incubator KAMM LLC, the latest in medical technology, SmartCode as well as a slew of other technologies including a college campus safety application, Gemini. SmartCode is a medical technology software that can be used in hospitals and private practices alike. The software is essentially Google for doctors' offices as well as a prompter that quickens and simplifies the medical coding process ensuring fast and efficient patient visits. Doctors would be wise to jump on this new technology quickly to aid the transition to ICD-10 so that they may bill visits effectively and correctly.

To learn more about Kyle, check out our interview with him in which we discuss the SmartCode product and his thoughts on taking the entrepreneurial route. You can check out the SmartCode website here for more information on the product.

Tell us about your company: 

KAMM is a custom software engineering firm focused on providing solutions to structured activities (i.e. managerial and operational processes), and consulting, for businesses and government.

Our premiere product, SmartCode,  is designed from the ground up to aid hospitals and doctors to improve quality and effectiveness of care by alleviating additional documentation burdens brought on by the complex transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 medical coding. It gives each user the ability to code to the highest level of acuity and specificity while prompting them to any correlating codes and required rules. SmartCode intelligently prompts you to make the most cost effective decisions while saving precious physician time by not having to perform multiple searches. 

What was your background prior to starting KAMM and developing your SmartCode software? 

Prior to starting KAMM, I completed my undergraduate studies with a dual-major in Mathematics and Computer Science at Elon University. After graduation, I worked for a large financial firm as a software engineer in back end support and trading systems for several years. In 2013, I completed my Master's in Computer Science at Virginia Tech and I am currently pursuing my doctorate. Additionally, I have worked as a software engineer on multiple contracts for the government (local and federal) over the last few years.

What was the tipping point that led you to entrepreneurship?

Throughout my entire life, I have always wanted to start and run my own company. Both of my parents are entrepreneurs, and much of how I envision entrepreneurship and running a company comes from them. The exact tipping point for started in 2011 when I decided to leave the comforts of  a standard working hours occupation and pursue my higher education. I never could agree with the typical schedule imposed by the typical work schedule and environment because it stifles creativity and innovation.

Pursuing higher education truly freed me to expand my repertoire of usable programming languages and frameworks that allows me to tackle any problem with a sound basis in the technologies required. Equipped with this new knowledge, I started working as a freelance programmer for a few small businesses that eventually led to the creation of KAMM with a goal at providing solutions to their most pressing business issues.

What roadblocks did you overcome to reach the point that you are at today?

One of the major roadblocks that we (and me personally) is over-commitment. As a young company, we leverage all potential leads to acquire contracts or projects for different entities. Our motivation to gain more capital quickly can be detrimental to the overall success of the company because over committing will "spread you thin" over all the projects. This diminishes the quality of your work and your throughput which both directly correlate to the success of your business through client satisfaction. In order to address this problem, we initially focused on splitting projects up based on their industry on a daily basis. That is each day represented a different industry whose projects we would focus on.

However, we found that, over time, this was hurting our productivity because a week would go by before we were able to get back to that project which meant we had to take more time re-learning where we left off the previous week. Now, we focus on a particular industry on a weekly basis. We spend Monday morning go over the work that we accomplished last time and decide what needs to be worked on this week. This allows us to dive fully into a single industry without distraction. This has worked out tremendously well since these block are mutable, therefore, we can rearrange the schedule as needed based on deadlines and the amount of work to be completed. If necessary, we can string two blocks of the same industry together to create a two-week push for a new or upcoming product.

How would you define success in terms of entrepreneurship?

From a 50,000 foot view, success is almost entirely defined simply by the relationships that you form. Yes, money is nice, but it is fleeting when compared to your network. Thus, a trusted relationship with other businesses (and your clients) is extremely beneficial since it will dictate the future success of your business. For example, at KAMM, one of the things that we pride ourselves on is always being available to our clients and network (day or night). In today's world, we know our clients can work at anytime, anywhere and we are here to provide support to them at all times. Over the years, I have learned that we must be prepared for anything all the time. You can call or text me personally at anytime at: 703.946.3883.

What are your plans for the future?

In the next year, we hope to have our newest product SmartCode being used by at least 1,000 doctors nationwide. The transition to ICD-10 is a huge issue right now because most providers don't even have a handle on ICD-9 and through Obamacare, The ICD-10 transition is going to be that much more complex further complicating healthcare. With ICD-9, there are approximately 13,000 codes. Doctors will now be expected to know 68,000 codes through ICD-10 which is a massive issue that will prolong patient visits and disrupt the healthcare system in a negative way. SmartCode solves this issue.

In the next five years, we are focused on growing KAMM to incorporate new solutions and clients with unique business challenges. Planning for the future in our business must account for variable changes in the market and be prepared for any and all opportunities to work with new clients. You never know when you will meet them.

7. Do you have any advice for up and coming entrepreneurs? 

My advice for entrepreneurs is two fold 1) cultivate relationships to build your network, and 2) start small, think small. We discussed earlier the importance of fostering relationships. These relationships can and should be with people from any walk of life from an optometrist who provides care and eyeglasses to inmates to a local business-owner turned real estate developer who specializes in historical renovations. As a new entrepreneur, you need to start somewhere. You might hear others say to "think big" about your product or idea, but I believe if you start small, think small you will have greater success in the future when you can start really thinking big.

The reason that I say "start small" is because it gives you a goal that can be accomplished. A small contract or project that can be completed successfully will help motivate you to go after the bigger, long-term projects. This positive reinforcement and the experience through the entire life cycle of a product from inception to production will only make you more prepared for future projects.