Agility is valuable (make the most of it) (PIN #21)

Practice Independence

Large healthcare organizations are trapped in a tangled web of red tape, which means they just can’t keep up with how fast technology is moving.

This creates a major opportunity for independent healthcare practices. 

Let’s dive in.

Stay informed, stay innovative.

On Today’s Rotation 🏅 

• The Remedy: Independent practices can get ahead of healthcare giants through rapid tech adoption.

• Clinical Intelligence: Generative AI resistance, telehealth upgrades, and the future of rehab.

• Indie Insider: Get a comprehensive operational audit of your administrative workflows today.

• Pulse Check: It’s your time to shine.

The Remedy 💪

For many hospitals and large healthcare organizations, the value of new administrative solutions is clear, and they're excited about the benefits these tools offer: increased efficiency, satisfied staff, and better patient outcomes.

But their internal structures make adoption difficult. Thanks to highly bureaucratic procedures, months or years can pass between identifying a problem and fully implementing a solution.

And as time goes by, the solution they're evaluating gradually becomes more obsolete. 

"By the time you weave through that red tape, there's something else out there," says Christopher Gaskins, PhD, OTR/L, and CEO of mobile neurorehabilitation practice Neurosuite. "The technology that you want to implement is probably already antiquated."

This lag in approval leaves large healthcare organizations with outdated administrative tools, even for routine tasks.

The impact extends beyond inefficiency or staff frustration. These outdated systems directly compromise patient care and drain practice resources. 

Gaskins recalls evaluating a patient's home and documenting serious safety risks—but the report sat in the system for a year before anyone followed up. 

That's a care gap that better administrative systems could have prevented.

Better care, better margins

While large organizations deliberate and run through countless review cycles with a wide variety of stakeholders, leaner, independent practices can evaluate and deploy new solutions quickly—and that speed translates directly into improved patient outcomes and stronger financial performance.

Referencing this agility, Gaskins says, "This is why I value having a small business, a small healthcare business. Because we can move. Obviously with proper compliance, we can move with speed and agility to implement the software we need."

When Gaskins finds a tool that can help him tackle administrative pain points, he can put it in place without jumping through hoops. In fact, he's already developed and launched an innovative AI-driven solution to support appointment scheduling for his mobile practice—and the business impact has been substantial.

The results speak to both care quality and business performance: he's reduced scheduling time and increased his daily patient capacity, which directly improves revenue per day. 

Just as importantly, eliminating this administrative burden allows him to reserve his mental energy for more personalized and in-depth patient interactions. He can spend more time understanding each patient's specific needs and goals, leading to better treatment plans and outcomes—without sacrificing productivity.

But while moving quickly is possible, independent practices still need to be thoughtful.

What should they be on the lookout for as they evaluate new tech? 

Take a look at the evaluation checklist in our most recent playbook.

Clinical Intelligence 💡

• While 67% of healthcare workers think generative AI tools could help solve burdens related to prior authorization, many organizations still aren't fully prepared to adopt them.

• Telehealth works, but experts say that upgrades are still needed.

• The APTA Future of Rehab Therapy Summit highlighted the emerging technologies that are shaping rehabilitation and patient care.

Want to learn more about Indie Health?

Indie is on a mission to improve the quality of life for rehab providers and their patients by combining technology with world-class rehab therapy. 

Click here to join the waitlist. We have limited spots available!