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DreamCloud Psychiatry opens in January and is already taking South Florida by storm. Developed by Chris Lee, former partner and co-founder of Miami’s top-ranked Elevate Psychiatry, DreamCloud brings life and personality to a medical practice model that he believed had become dry and outdated. His calendar is already booked two months in.
“With DreamCloud, I wanted to create something that was more relatable to today’s generation so that seeing the psychiatrist could feel less intimidating to patients,” says Lee. “Nobody wants to pay $400 to wait hours in a crowded doctor’s office anymore. Mental health has become much more important to patients in recent years and they want quality care that they can afford, delivered in a way that not only fits their busy lifestyle but rewards them with a positive experience that will encourage them to return.”
Lee chooses modern, contemporary office spaces with a feeling of engagement in the community to attract patients who want to seek care in a familiar environment. “With Elevate Psychiatry, I chose a high-rise loft space with concrete floors and exposed ceilings. We used amoratherapy and sound conditioning to emulate the feeling of a spa.” For DreamCloud in Miami Beach, he rented several units in the trendy WeWork South of Fifth building which offers weekly social events to members and guests, including rooftop yoga, and healthy amenities such as fresh fruit and kombucha. DreamCloud in Fort Lauderdale sits in the heart of Wilton Manors, steps away from popular gyms and healthy restaurants.
Perhaps the most innovative of DreamCloud Psychiatry’s concepts, are its CloudSessions. CloudSessions allows any patient in Florida to access DreamCloud’s services simply using a laptop, cellphone, or tablet. “DreamCloud patients can be anywhere in the country and never miss a follow-up or run out of medication,” he proudly states. Unlike most telemedicine companies which operate solely from a remote office, DreamCloud offers office visits, Cloudsessions, or a combination of both to fit any lifestyle.
Lee is a licensed and board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner and psychotherapist and unlike physicians, is able to prescribe medication and provide therapy to patients of all ages. Psychiatrists are typically limited to an adult or child population and recent polls indicate that physicians may lack the patient care and bedside manner that nurses are inherently trained to provide. Psychiatric nurse practitioners receive three years of intensive training similar to a physician’s three year residency in psychiatry. A simple search on Yelp or Google gives Lee a consistent five-star rating by his patients.
“Making an appointment is so easy at DreamCloud,” says financial advisor Junior Cruz. “You can schedule yourself online, call them, text them, email them. There are so many ways to gain access.” And it won’t break the bank either. All of DreamCloud’s services are priced affordably. Their process to set fees was simple. Lee and his team contacted nearly every psychiatrist in Miami pretending to be a new patient, calculated the average of their fees, and cut the prices by 30-50%. All of their fees are transparently posted on their website.
“Cost is really important factor. Psychiatric care can be very expensive, but we don’t think it needs to be. I’d rather have patients be able to come and check in more frequently and get more from treatment, than be deterred by high prices and receive insufficient follow-up care,” DreamCloud uses HIPAA-compliant software to provide patients convenient, paperless forms which also save time and money. They provide free lab orders and interpretation, including recently trending genetic swab testing for medication selection.
DreamCloud is simply so likable. They recently announced the DreamCloud Charity program, which choose one random patient each month to select a non-profit charity of their choice. DreamCloud then will donate that patient’s session fee to the organization and posts information about the charity on its website and social media to encourage altruism and awareness in the community.
So far Lee’s creative strategies are working. Financial reports from Elevate Psychiatry indicate that total revenue tripled in 2017 under his co-direction. The American Psychiatric Association published an article in 2016 which concluded that “increasingly positive attitudes toward mental health help seeking from professionals, especially in the younger generation, has likely contributed to increased use of services over the past decade and will continue to do so in the coming years.”
DreamCloud Psychiatry opens two offices in Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale this year with plans to expand in the future. To learn more about DreamCloud Psychiatry and its services go to www.dreamcloudpsychiatry.com.