Executive Summary

A nationwide telemedicine company operating 98% remotely faced the post-COVID challenge every organization knows: how to maintain productivity and compliance when employees work from home. With 150+ staff members handling thousands of patient orders monthly—including controlled substances across different state regulations—they needed visibility without micromanagement.

Five years into their Teramind journey, they’ve discovered they were only using 40-50% of the platform’s capabilities. Now, as they scale up utilization, they’re avoiding unnecessary $60,000 hires by coaching underperformers, protecting patient data for HIPAA compliance, and building custom APIs to integrate productivity metrics across their entire operation.

Remote Healthcare at Scale

Operating a telemedicine platform presents unique challenges. This company processes thousands of patient orders monthly, with doctors and staff spread across the country. Different states have different compliance requirements for controlled substances and prescriptions—one mistake could mean regulatory violations.

“Finding what’s that level of productivity where it’s legitimate, there’s not going to be any cause for concern, and you’re not going to have your employees redlining and falling off the wagon,” the Operations Director explains. Remote work productivity would never match in-office levels with managers looking over shoulders, but they needed realistic benchmarks.

The company had grown from 50-60 employees to over 150 in just five years. With departments reaching 30 people each—”a small company in itself”—traditional management approaches were breaking down.

From Basic Monitoring to Strategic Tool

Like many organizations, this telemedicine company started with Teramind’s basic features and gradually discovered its potential. “I think every company makes this mistake—you get this fancy new tool and everyone’s afraid to figure out where the limits are and what the actual features do,” the Operations Director admits.

Their Teramind usage evolved through three distinct phases:

• Phase 1: Basic Monitoring – General employee verification and presence checking 
• Phase 2: Productivity Analysis – Understanding activity levels and identifying coaching opportunities
  Phase 3: Advanced Integration – Building custom reports and APIs to connect with other systems

Even after five years, they estimate they’re only utilizing 40-50% of Teramind’s full capabilities, with their IT team now creating custom-generated reports to provide real-time insights to managers.

Beyond productivity, Teramind serves a critical compliance function for this healthcare organization. With controlled substance prescriptions crossing state lines, each with different regulations, mistakes aren’t just costly—they’re potentially criminal.

“It allows us to follow up when there is an error or mistake. We can jump right to the timeframe, right to the snapshot, see exactly what the employee entered and make any corrections based on that information,” the Operations Director explains.

This visibility transforms he-said-she-said situations into fact-based resolutions. When patients claim employees provided incorrect information, managers can verify exactly what transpired, protecting both the company and honest employees.

The $60,000 Question of Smarter Hiring

As the company scaled rapidly, the default solution seemed obvious: throw more bodies at the problem. But Teramind data revealed a different story.

Consider this scenario: Two sales representatives show 50% productivity each. Traditional metrics might suggest the team is down 55 sales against forecast, requiring a new hire at $60,000 annually. But Teramind’s deeper insights revealed these weren’t capacity issues—they were performance problems.

“I don’t need another salesperson. I just need the two people who are dragging the bottom and not giving me the productivity to either pick it up or be replaced,” the Operations Director realized. By replacing two underperformers with one engaged employee, they saved money while doubling productivity.

This approach has transformed their hiring strategy. “Every answer can’t be ‘throw a $60,000 seat at the position’—you’re going to capsize pretty quick at that point.”

Coaching Top Performers With Precision

Perhaps Teramind’s most innovative application came in coaching high performers—traditionally the hardest group to improve. How do you push someone already exceeding expectations?

The answer lay in productivity percentages. A top performer hitting all KPIs might show only 40% productivity in Teramind. This isn’t grounds for discipline—they’re achieving their goals—but it reveals untapped potential.

“Now I can go to employee X and show them, ‘Hey, you’re kicking butt. You’re doing amazing, but your productivity level is a little bit down. Let’s find a way to get that 45 up to 55 or 60,'” the Operations Director explains.

For bottom performers, the data provides equal clarity:

• High activity, low results: Training and coaching opportunity
• Low activity, low results: Performance management issue

This precision eliminates guesswork from people management, making difficult conversations fact-based rather than subjective.

While the company hasn’t experienced data theft, Teramind has caught other security issues:

• Time card manipulation
• Inappropriate website usage during work hours
• Potential compliance violations before they escalate

The platform’s value extends beyond catching bad actors—it’s about maintaining standards across a distributed workforce where traditional oversight is impossible.

Building the Future With APIs

The company’s IT team is now developing APIs to pull Teramind data into management dashboards, creating a unified view of operations. This integration represents the next evolution in their monitoring strategy—from reactive checking to proactive management.

“Outside of just the basic time tracking or monitoring or snapshots, it’s really valuable,” the Operations Director notes. They’re transforming Teramind from a monitoring tool into a business intelligence platform.

Navigating AI and Medical Misinformation

The telemedicine industry faces unique challenges with AI tools. Patients use ChatGPT for self-diagnosis, sometimes receiving “hallucinated” medical advice. In one case, AI incorrectly advised patients to mix “bathwater” with medications for improved effectiveness.

Rather than blocking AI tools entirely, the company takes a nuanced approach. Employees can use AI platforms to understand what patients are seeing, while the company builds its own medical AI with verified information. This balanced strategy acknowledges modern realities while maintaining medical accuracy.

The Operations Director’s advice to other companies is unequivocal: “Do it. Install Teramind. Learn the system as much as you possibly can sooner rather than later so you’re intrinsically tied into the true level of production from your company.”

After five years of gradual adoption, they recognize the cost of hesitation. Every month spent using only basic features represents lost opportunities for optimization, smarter hiring decisions, and better employee development.

Lessons for Remote Healthcare Organizations

This telemedicine company’s journey offers valuable insights for similar organizations:

1. Compliance requires documentation – In healthcare, Teramind provides irrefutable records for regulatory requirements
2. Remote doesn’t mean invisible – 98% remote operations can maintain accountability
3. Growth requires evolution – Tools that work for 50 employees need different utilization at 150
4. Data prevents expensive mistakes – One avoided mis-hire pays for years of Teramind
5. High performers need coaching too – Productivity metrics reveal potential even in top talent

From basic monitoring to strategic business intelligence, this company demonstrates that Teramind’s value grows with organizational maturity and commitment to utilization.

“Learn the system as much as you possibly can sooner rather than later so you’re intrinsically tied into the true level of productivity from your company.” – Operations Director, Telemedicine Company