As Brooklyn Minds grows, each new teammate strengthens our ability to serve members of our community. Our staff spotlight series highlights the unique expertise and lived experiences of our team members. Today we highlight Kachi Iwu, our Finance and Systems Advisor.
Kachi is a Nashville, TN native who moved to NYC to attend Columbia
University, where she majored in Film Studies. She has worked on a variety of film and theatre projects that explore black womanhood, healing, family, mortality, and other lighthearted subjects. Her recent short play Georgia Rose, inspired by the real life case of Grace, a young black girl who was put in jail during Covid for not doing her homework, can be viewed on YouTube. We at Brooklyn Minds are grateful to have this self-described “math kid” on our team to help streamline our workflows both internally and with patients.
We asked Kachi a few questions so our community can get to know her better. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
What does it mean to be Systems Advisor?
Systems, the way I see it, is defined in two ways. There is the literal “system” as in the systems that we use to operate. For example, what we use to get our patient demographic information, their insurance information, how we bill to insurances, where we book patient appointments. SimplePractice is a system we use right now. Then, there is the system of how we operate. What is our workflow? How do we improve communication between departments? I advise on both and help decide what is the most efficient, sustainable way we can operate and where.
You must need a holistic view of the practice to answer a lot of these questions.
I would say so! I do have to think about things from the clinical standpoint, the admin standpoint, the finance standpoint. Since I’m on the finance and admin team, I often bring that prospective first, since I understand the nuances of what’s needed on that side. In meetings with other stakeholders, Carlene can often bring in the clinical perspective.
What specific criteria were you looking at?
For our new system, we wanted to improve the patient experience. For example, we wanted to have a more sophisticated patient portal. This included allowing patients to book their own appointments, update credit card information, and pay their own bills. On the admin side, we wanted to reduce the amount of manual tasks our team had to do. On the clinical side, we wanted to improve the process of documentation.
As we kept researching places, we realized that none of them checked all the boxes. So then it came down to picking and choosing; where are we willing to compromise? What’s necessary now, and what can we hope to achieve later? We eventually settled on Elation and Practice Suite, and we’re very excited about the transition. I think the goal eventually is to build our own system, because the kind of system we want doesn’t exist quite yet.
What about what you have been doing in the other part of your role, on the Finance team?
On the finance side, I’m mostly responsible for making sure patients are properly billed and their appointments are coded correctly. Finance can be a very stressful, anxiety-inducing part of treatment. Especially during COVID, I’ve really enjoyed being able to be open with patients about their finances, and figuring out plans with their changing circumstances. That’s been really important to me, in terms of providing transparency. I actually got into finance kind of by accident. When I originally started at Front Desk, it was the area of my job I took the most pleasure in. I was a “math kid” growing up, so figuring out the rules of coding and pricing was fun for me. Also, something I really enjoy about working here is that, once you find your niche, you can kind of run with it. For them to recognize and identify that, and trust me enough to expand it to something bigger for my current role, that was really cool!
We appreciate the time Kachi took to speak with us and answer our questions, and we are thrilled to have her as part of our team.
