What if the reason your practice is burning out isn't because your clinicians don't care or your staff isn't trying? What if it's because they're spending their days doing work that any system could do—entering the same patient data over and over, hunting for insurance information, managing paperwork that should have been automated a decade ago?
In this episode of The Thriving Practice Podcast, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with Jeremy Hummer, SVP of Strategic Partnerships and Growth of Certified Health, a practice automation platform that's been quietly solving this problem for healthcare systems and group practices for over 12 years. What makes Jeremy's perspective unique is this: he didn't come from healthcare IT. He came from hospitality. And that completely changes how he thinks about automation, staff retention, and patient experience.
Certified Health started with an ambitious vision—to authenticate patient identity across healthcare using biometrics so patients never had to fill out the same form twice. Along the way, Jeremy learned something even more powerful: the real problem practices face isn't technology. It's how to give staff permission to stop being data-entry machines so they can actually connect with patients. Whether you're a solo practitioner wrestling with scheduling complexity, a group practice managing multiple locations with different systems, or a DSO trying to unify patient experience across acquisitions, this episode challenges everything you think you know about automation, staff morale, and sustainable practice growth.
Key Takeaways
• Automation is not about replacing staff—it's about releasing them from repetitive work so they can deliver real value. The fear of job loss misses the point entirely; the real cost is staff burnout and turnover from doing mundane tasks all day.
• Patient experience and staff experience are linked. When patients can check in on a kiosk or via text before arriving, and front-desk staff don't have to re-enter data by hand, both the patient and the staff member get what they actually want: faster throughput and time for human interaction.
• Before you buy any technology, diagnose the actual problem. Is it a people problem (staffing, training, empowerment)? A systems problem (incompatible software, broken workflows)? Or a tool problem? Automating a broken system just makes it faster and bigger.
• Turnover is expensive in ways practice owners often don't calculate. Training cycles, lost productivity, and re-hiring costs compound. Automation doesn't necessarily reduce headcount; it reduces the need to constantly backfill positions because staff actually want to stay.
• DSOs and multi-location practices have a unique problem: disparate systems across acquired locations. A platform that acts as an EMR/PMS wrapper—unifying patient experience and staff workflows while leaving clinical systems alone—can eliminate integration costs and staff confusion.
Q&A
Why do practice owners and decision-makers often get automation wrong?
Most practice owners see automation as a way to reduce headcount or cut costs. But the real insight Jeremy shares is that staff turnover is the invisible cost—the training hamster wheel, where people leave after a few weeks because the work is unfulfilling, forcing you to rehire and retrain constantly. Automation addresses this by freeing staff from mundane tasks, which paradoxically makes them want to stay and creates space for them to do higher-value work.
How does Certified Health integrate with existing practice systems?
Certified Health acts as an EMR/PMS wrapper—it sits on top of your existing systems (Epic, Cerner, Oracle, Athena, Denticon, etc.) and handles the patient-facing workflows: kiosk check-in, digital pre-registration via text message, and data capture. Your clinical staff continue using whatever EMR they know; patients and front-desk staff see a unified, branded experience regardless of what's running in the background.
What should practices prioritize before implementing automation?
Tracy and Jeremy emphasize the need for buy-in from all stakeholders—not just IT, but operations and front-desk teams. Additionally, practices need to be clear about whether the problem is people-based (staffing, training, empowerment), systems-based (incompatible software, broken workflows), or tool-based. Implementing technology on a broken foundation will only amplify the problems you already have.
Episode Highlights
• Jeremy's unexpected path from hospitality to healthcare tech
• Why Certified Health started with enterprise authentication and evolved into a full practice automation platform
• The 12-year runway: lessons learned from working with 1,000+ location healthcare systems
• How biometric authentication solved duplicate medical records and medical identity fraud—and what that taught him about integration
• The training hamster wheel: why turnover costs practice owners far more than they calculate
• The hospitality mindset: automation should make room for human connection, not replace it
• Why "big scary AI" misses the point—what matters is growing technology adoption slowly and intentionally
• DSO scaling challenges: consolidating patient experience across disparate systems without replacing existing EMRs
• Real talk: what implementation actually requires in terms of time, bandwidth, and stakeholder buy-in
• How a smoother patient intake process can increase practice capacity by 20–50% without hiring more clinicians
Memorable Quotes
"Automation, AI, technology needs to play hand in hand with those humans, both as a staff member, but also as a patient or a customer." — Jeremy Hummer
"There's no hard line in the sand between good care and good feeling. You can provide both." — Jeremy Hummer
"If you're just doing something that any human can do, that doesn't make you more valuable. But if you're doing things that are more revenue driven, more value driven, more patient-experience driven—now you're providing real value." — Jeremy Hummer
"It's not about replacing people. It's about allowing an organization to not have to backfill as much or as consistently as they do today." — Jeremy Hummer
"The biggest thing we've learned from digital intake and automation of patient intake is not about replacing people—it's about enabling staff to do things that actually matter." — Jeremy Hummer
Jeremy Hummer's reminder to practice owners is simple but profound: technology is not the enemy of human connection—it's the enabler. When you free your staff from the grind of data entry and repetitive paperwork, you don't just save them time; you give them permission to bring their whole selves to work. And when patients experience a smooth, frictionless intake process, they're less anxious and more ready to receive care. For practice owners wrestling with burnout, turnover, and the pressure to see more patients in less time, this episode offers a path that doesn't require hiring more people or working harder. It requires being willing to think differently about how technology serves both staff and patients. If this conversation resonated with you, share it with a colleague who's considering automation or feeling stuck with legacy systems. Explore the resources at Thriving Practice Community, and if you want to see how Certified Health works with your specific systems, visit CertifiedHealth.com or connect with Jeremy directly on LinkedIn.
Guest Bio:
Jeremy Hummer didn't set out to change healthcare. He came from hospitality—a background that taught him the power of service design and human connection. Over the past 12+ years, he's watched Certified Health evolve from a biometric authentication startup into a full-scale practice automation platform serving enterprise healthcare systems, group practices, and rapidly scaling DSOs. What makes Jeremy different is his refusal to think of automation as replacing people. He thinks of it the way a great hotel does: as a way to free your best people to deliver the experience that matters.
Find Jeremy:
Jeremy’s Email: jeremy.hummer@certifyhealth.com
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