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The recent global pandemic has seen many industries shutter because of the economic impact. Medical professionals still have a lot of patients, although some subgroups of the field have had to revamp how they do business. Small clinics have kept their visitor numbers down and stagger arrivals.

The CDC has offered some guidance to dentists for their private practices to keep operating through the pandemic. Other practices have had to discover new methods of reaching out to clients and performing consultations. Telemedicine has become a common way for physicians to interact with their clients on a one-on-one basis. Dr. Jonathan Kaplan runs a private practice in San Francisco, and here we look at how his business coped with the pandemic.

Increased Plastic Surgery Due to Lockdowns

According to Jolene Edgar of Allure, the demand for plastic surgery has skyrocketed amidst the panic of the COVID-19 virus. Thanks to this increased demand, Dr. Kaplan has seen more clients flock to his practice. He believes that this increase in plastic surgery comes from two sources. Firstly, because of massive lockdowns and furloughs, workers now have time to spend on recovery, meaning that they can safely undergo plastic surgery without having to take time off work. Secondly, the money that workers might have spent on vacations is now redirected to plastic surgery. Holidays are out of the question for the foreseeable future, due to the volatility of borders.

Masking Up Staff for Safety

Dr. Jonathan Kaplan doesn't believe in risking the lives of his employees, however. He's been actively ensuring that his workers keep wearing masks during the day, especially for those with customer-facing roles. Like other doctors, he's also looked at remote conferencing software like Zoom for his one-on-one consultations with patients. Additionally, thanks to the documentation system of these online conferencing tools and the encryption inherent in their connection algorithms, doctors can remain sure of patient confidentiality. These options also offer ease of use to clients and give them convenience in their choice of surgeon.

Automated Systems: BuildMyBod Health

One of the more innovative developments from Dr. Kaplan's practice is the BuildMyBod app, which he developed to enable the automation of price quotes from physicians’ offices. BuildMyBod Health was initially conceived as a method of helping physicians manage patient expectations in regards to cost. It grew into a software suite that allows doctors to have AI-trained chatbots and price estimators handle most client-facing discussions regarding price estimates. It's a convenient method for doctors to get important information from the client and offers the potential consumer an itemized estimate of a procedure's cost. During this time, having a consultation like this benefits many businesses by saving them the hassle of making a customer come in for a consultation.

Will These Measures Continue?

Dr. Jonathan Kaplan believes that even with vaccines now available and the end of the pandemic in sight, keeping these COVID-19 safety practices will benefit his business. Remote conferencing has allowed him to have more time to dedicate to patients. BuildMyBod Health has also improved patient retention and has led to other practices adopting the software for their own uses. Masks within the building help to reduce the overall spread of disease. Even though the pandemic may have impacted business negatively in many areas, it's also been responsible for innovations that could benefit the industry as a whole.