ABOUT US
My story
I am a respiratory and sleep physician and have been running my private practice since 2012. Initially, this practice included myself and my secretary who I inherited from a retiring physician. This worked efficiently while we were both present. However, if either one of us were to take leave, the practice efficiency dropped off significantly. Arranging cover for my secretary while on leave was a nightmare as it required weeks of training and the job was never done as well as when done by my own secretary. When I took leave myself, there was no one to cover me to look after my patience and referring doctors.
I realised that to ensure our ongoing efficiency, we needed to expand to have more doctors and more secretarial staff.
After extensive research I employed my first staff member in the Philippines. I found the Filipinos to have an excellent work ethic, they spoke very good English, were highly educated and worked in a similar time zone. The cost to employ in the Philippines was significantly reduced when compared to hiring local staff. I also calculated that over 80% of the secretarial and admin tasks which I required were performed remotely. Employing staff in the Philippines allowed me to expand my secretarial team without having to find extra desk space in my Private Practice.
My first staff member in the Philippines was Jolani. Initially, Jolani performed simple tasks for me such as importing patient’s demographic details into our practice management system, sending text message appointment reminders, submitting inpatient billing to private health funds and sending patient letters to referring doctors. Jolanie has continued to learn and develop her skills and is now my most experienced medical secretary. She has assisted me in training four other full-time medical secretaries who all work for my practice from our office in Dumaguete.
This team works seamlessly with my medical secretaries based in my Melbourne office to run our practice. Having the team in Dumaguete gives my practice outstanding secretarial and administrative support, freeing up time for myself, the other doctors in my practice and my local secretarial team so that we can all spend more time caring for our patients and performing clinical work.
Whether you are in a group practice or a solo practitioner, having your own off-site medical secretary to assist you will make a huge improvement to your practice. Air secretary is here to help you find, employ and manage your own secretary so that you may enjoy the same great benefits in your practice.
About our founders
Air Secretary was established in 2022 by Barton and Leah Jennings.
After meeting on the Monash Hospital respiratory ward as a junior doctor and physiotherapist, they married in 2010 and have been business partners for over 10 years running their respiratory and sleep practice - Lung and Sleep. Air Secretary was started to help other specialist practices in Australia improve their efficiency and cost effectiveness through utilising off-site medical secretaries which has been so successful for their practice.
They love the balance between working hard running their specialist practice and spending time together creating memories as a family with their two sons, Sullivan and Flynn.
They also love to travel and keep active with golf, tennis, skiing and water sports.
