Module 5: Technology Discovery

Section in wizard: Technology IQA Time to complete training: 11 minutes Time per discovery: 4–6 minutes

Why this section matters

Technology is the section that surfaces referral-grade opportunities and the section that catches risks before they become problems. The wizard's signal logic — flagging residential internet, no EMR, missed after-hours calls, no phone system, and 5+ staff without Microsoft 365 — is doing real diagnostic work. Each of those signals is a specific, addressable problem with a specific solution.

This section is also where the CTS (Continuant Technology Solutions) referral path lives. CHS doesn't sell every technology service — but Continuant as a whole does, and a clean referral here is worth real money to the company and credibility to you. Reps who consistently surface technology issues and route them appropriately become trusted advisors, not just vendors.

The other reason this section matters: the prospect almost never thinks of technology as a problem until you point at it. They've been working around residential internet for two years. They've been missing 23% of after-hours calls and chalking it up to normal. Your job is to make the cost of "normal" visible.

What we're really learning

Are there infrastructure failures hiding in plain sight? Residential internet at a medical practice is a HIPAA, reliability, and continuity problem. Most owners have no idea their internet contract isn't appropriate.
Is there an after-hours revenue leak? "Do you miss calls after hours" is a question with a near-universal answer of yes. The question that matters is whether they've ever quantified it.
What's the EMR situation, and is it costing them? No EMR, considering options, or unhappy with current — each is a different conversation. EMR satisfaction is also a leading indicator for RCM dissatisfaction; the two often co-occur.
Are there compliance gaps in the technology stack? Practices running on consumer-grade Gmail, sharing patient information over personal text messages, or with no managed IT have HIPAA exposure. Surface it without panicking them.

Listening cues

Strong buying signals (and the wizard will flag these in real time):

Residential internet at a medical practice. Compliance issue, reliability issue, no SLA. Direct conversation about business-grade replacement.
"We miss calls after hours." AI Voice Agent territory. Usually 15–25% of clinic calls go unanswered, and at typical reimbursement that's $100–$200K/year in lost revenue.
No phone system or "we just use cell phones." Full phone + contact center opportunity.
No EMR, or "evaluating options." Direct EMR consulting and selection support, plus compliance and billing implications.
5+ staff with no Microsoft 365. Email, file sharing, and security gaps that grow worse every quarter.

Lukewarm signals:

"Our IT is fine, we have a guy."
They have an EMR but can't tell you what they like or dislike about it.
They have a phone system but it's "just OK."

Cold / disqualify signals:

They actively don't want to talk about technology — usually because a previous IT vendor burned them.
Solo cash-only practice with no employees and minimal infrastructure — they don't need most of what we'd offer.
Hospital-affiliated practice where IT decisions are made at the system level — you're not the buyer.

Red flags / disqualify guidance

De-prioritize or refer carefully when:

They're in an active ransomware incident or recent breach. This is incident response, not managed IT. Refer to security specialists immediately. Do not engage as the primary responder.
The practice is on a hospital-owned network and the prospect doesn't know it. Ask early whether they're hospital-affiliated. If their EMR is hospital-licensed and their internet runs through hospital infrastructure, IT decisions aren't theirs to make. Spend your time on services they actually buy.
They want a HIPAA assessment but no remediation budget. A HIPAA assessment that surfaces issues nobody is going to fix is worse than no assessment — it documents knowledge of risk without resolution. Either scope assessment + remediation together, or pass.
Compliance theater requests. Some prospects want a checkbox ("we have a HIPAA-compliant phone system") without understanding what compliance actually means. Educate them — don't sell them a product they think solves a problem it doesn't actually solve.
They want us to take over IT but won't let us replace anything. "Manage what we have" with infrastructure that's already broken is a contract you'll lose money on and they'll be unhappy with. Scope the replacement or pass.

Common rep mistakes

Skipping the section because "it doesn't apply." The technology section applies to every practice. Even a "no problems here" answer is a captured data point that helps you propose the right bundle. Run the section every time.
Treating CTS referrals as a give-away. CTS referrals create real revenue for Continuant overall and real credibility for you. Track them. Follow up on them. The prospect should hear from CTS within 24 hours of you surfacing the need.
Not naming the missed-call cost. "How many calls do you miss after hours?" usually gets "I don't know" or "a few." The follow-up is "the average specialty practice misses 18 to 25 percent of after-hours calls, and at your average new patient value that's somewhere between $80,000 and $180,000 a year. Most of that is recoverable with a $400/month AI voice agent that books appointments 24/7." Specific. Numerical. Worth noticing.
Conflating "cheap" technology with "good" technology. Practices running on consumer-grade tools because "it's free" are accumulating risk. Make the risk visible without lecturing.
Missing the residential-internet flag. When the wizard flags residential internet, take it seriously. It's the single most common, most ignored, and most important infrastructure issue in small medical practices. A serious conversation here can save the practice from a HIPAA incident and anchor you as the technical authority in the relationship.

Sample dialogue

Opening the section

Rep: "Quick set of questions on technology. What kind of internet does the practice run on — business-grade fiber or cable, or something residential?"

Prospect: "Honestly, I think it's just residential cable. We've been here three years, my partner set it up."

Rep: "Got it, and I want to flag this gently because it comes up a lot — residential internet at a medical practice is technically not appropriate for a few reasons. There's no SLA, no business-priority traffic, and most importantly, residential ISPs don't provide the security and audit trails you need for HIPAA. If the line goes down on a Tuesday morning, you're at the back of the queue. We can introduce you to our technology team to scope a business-grade replacement — usually similar pricing once you account for what you're missing."

You've named the issue, named the risk, and introduced the referral path. Don't oversell — the prospect now knows you're not just a credentialing rep.

After-hours call leakage

Rep: "What happens when patients call after hours? Do they hit voicemail, an answering service, nothing?"

Prospect: "Voicemail. We check it in the morning."

Rep: "How many of those callers actually leave a message versus hanging up?"

Prospect: "I'd guess most of them hang up if they don't get someone."

Rep: "That's the common pattern. Most specialty practices we look at are missing 18–25% of after-hours call volume, which on a practice your size translates to somewhere around $80–$120K a year in lost new patient revenue. We have an AI voice agent product that handles after-hours intake, books appointments, and texts the front desk a summary in the morning. Runs about $400 a month. It's one of the few products where the math is just embarrassingly in favor of the buyer."

You've made the invisible visible and named the price. Not pushy.

EMR conversation

Rep: "What EMR are you on, and how's it working out?"

Prospect: "We're on Practice Fusion. It's free, so the price is right, but honestly it's been frustrating."

Rep: "Practice Fusion was a great option a few years ago when it was independent. Since the acquisition, the platform has gotten thinner — fewer features, less support, billing module that doesn't keep up. A lot of practices we work with are migrating off it. If you're already feeling the pain, we can help scope a migration to a platform that better fits your specialty. EMR migration is a real project — usually 60–90 days — but it's almost always worth it once a platform starts holding the practice back."

You've validated the pain, framed the path, and not over-promised.

Closing the section

Rep: "Last thing on technology — anything else nagging at you on the IT side that we haven't talked about? Backups, email, security, file sharing, anything weird that's been on the back of your mind?"

Open invitation. Whatever they bring up here is worth capturing in notes, even if it's not something we directly solve.

Transition out

Rep: "Okay, we've covered everything. I'm going to put together a written summary of what we discussed and a pricing range for the services that fit. You'll have it within 24 hours. Anything I missed or anything you'd like me to dig into?"

The transition is also the close. You're moving toward proposal.

Wizard fields and signals covered in this section

hasEMR, techSatisfaction, techGaps, technologyAdvisorReferral, notes

The wizard surfaces five real-time signal flags during this section. Each one is a specific opportunity:

Signal	Meaning	Action
🚨 No EMR / Evaluating	Referral opportunity, RCM at risk	Loop solutions consulting + revisit RCM scope
⚠️ Missing after-hours calls	AI Voice Agent fit	Quantify lost revenue, position $400/mo product
🚨 Residential internet	HIPAA + reliability issue	CTS referral, business-grade replacement
⚠️ No phone system	Phone + contact center fit	CTS referral, scope users + DIDs
💡 5+ staff, no M365	Licensing + managed IT fit	CTS referral, scope email + backup

What good looks like

A completed Technology IQA where:

Every signal flag the wizard surfaces was acknowledged and discussed (not skipped past)
If a CTS referral is appropriate, the technologyAdvisorReferral field is set to "Yes" and the prospect has been told to expect outreach
The notes field captures any IT pain the prospect surfaced that doesn't fit the standard categories
The section was run, not skipped — even for practices that seem technology-mature