Where do you go when you have foot pain? Up to 25% of older adults experience foot pain that results in limited mobility. While patients can go to their family doctor for guidance, seeing a Podiatrist for custom orthotics and Podiatry services is often more effective for getting the right diagnosis and treatment. HealthCasa makes it easier and more convenient for you to see a specialist by bringing them to you – at home or work.
“We take care of all the legwork involved in finding and vetting your practitioner,” says COO Mike Gaspar. “We make the entire process easy and convenient. It’s a premium service without the premium price.”
Currently, HealthCasa is being used by practitioners and patients across the Greater Toronto Area, with plans to expand to new locations and service offerings. We spoke with Mike to learn more about HealthCasa.
What is HealthCasa?
HealthCasa lets you instantly book orthotics and podiatry appointments at home or work. We take care of all the legwork involved in finding and vetting your practitioner, and then make the entire process easy and convenient. You’re getting everything you would expect from a “traditional” foot clinic, but we come to you, and it costs the patient the same as most clinics out there.
What are the advantages of booking with HealthCasa over a traditional clinic?
There are four main reasons why.
First, we offer instant booking. When you book an appointment, it’s booked! We don’t mess around with annoying booking requests dressed up as actual bookings.
Second, we make booking appointments convenient. Our patients can book appointments for before, during, or after their workday. We come to you!
Third, HealthCasa saves you time. There’s no traffic, no waiting rooms, no delays… We know our patients have better things to do, like spend time with their family or close that big deal at work.
Finally, this is all housed in a secure patient portal. We make it easy for our patients to access all their prescriptions, documents, and receipts.
Why did you start HealthCasa?
We started HealthCasa in 2017 for two main reasons. First, we wanted to provide patients with a simple, effective, efficient and convenient option when it comes to addressing their healthcare needs. Second, we wanted to provide healthcare practitioners with the necessary infrastructure to provide high quality patient care, which in turn creates a safe, honest, and transparent work environment for our practitioners.
Our team has over 20 years of combined experience in the foot care industry, and we’ve built successful Chiropody clinics and orthotic manufacturing labs. Our Chief Chiropodist, who is licensed and actively practicing in Ontario, oversees our clinical operations and training. This collective experience and expertise is why we chose to focus on orthotics and podiatry/chiropody services. We know the industry inside-out and we know how to do it right.
What are you trying to solve? Why is it such a big problem?
Our lives are busier than ever and addressing our personal health needs seems to constantly take a back seat to other priorities like work, family and social activities. People often accept foot pain at face value, but foot pain is not normal. Thankfully, it can easily (and now conveniently) be dealt with so you can start living pain free and resume your regular activities.
What are you trying to achieve HealthCasa?
We’re trying to provide more people with better access to high quality healthcare options. We understand that everyone’s work schedules, life schedules, and social obligations are constantly changing. Providing patients with an easier way to access preventative healthcare services, such as Chiropody and Podiatry services, has the potential to keep people out of doctors’ offices and ensure they’re able to enjoy the more important things in life.
What impact has HealthCasa made?
Simply put, we are allowing our patients to address their foot related problems when they previously were unable to do so due to scheduling constraints. Being able to schedule an appointment during your baby’s nap or between meetings at the office … the time and effort required is drastically reduced.
What are some major milestones and success?
We’re pretty new, only a few months of actively helping patients, that said, it’s great hearing our patients rave about how amazing their HealthCasa experience was, from the instant booking process, to the thorough and educational appointment, the solution or improvement of their conditions, right through to the highly involved level of patient after-care. We’ve already started seeing many of our patients returning for repeat appointments and referring family and friends to use our services. That is a huge indicator for us and tells us that we are doing the right things the right way, and that people really do appreciate the quality and convenience of our services.
Where are you headed next? Where and how do you see your company growing?
HealthCasa will become a leader in the Chiropody and Podiatry industry in Ontario, and by extension a leader in the allied healthcare industry in Ontario. We plan to add other related services in the near future, while increasing our geographical reach.
What problems did you face along the way?
PHIPA compliance is a difficult thing to navigate, but a task that’s not to be taken lightly. Partnering with MedStack gives us the confidence that our information, but more importantly our patients’ information, is protected and monitored by industry leading experts in their field.
