Client Success Story:

Leisle Chung

“My responsibility is really just the day-to-day operations of the practice, but then also just the strategic direction, practice development, organizational development, [and] our culture,” Leisle says. “In addition to that, I am also active with nonprofits that I support.”

But with a six-office practice, demands are often high – with time and bandwidth to be everywhere and do everything often low.

“I heard about BELAY through two podcasts,” she says. “It came up a couple of times so by the time I heard it the second time, I was like, ‘OK. I should check this out and just see. Up to that point, I had actually been interviewing for an assistant who could be onsite working with me – but had not had great luck finding the right candidate.”

Enter: BELAY VA Kim Tobey.

Leisle, with prior experience with assistants, immediately extended Kim trust.

“I had come from the corporate world where I [had] an assistant who managed everything,” Leisle says. “She had access to everything. So I had been looking for someone who could start to take on some of that – and so I was very happy when Kim came in!”

And Kim took that trust and ran with it.

“She is definitely a very busy lady,” Kim adds. “I love working with her and being able to help with anything that I can.

“We started with [her] calendar – making sure appointments were set in time blocks and making sure her family calendar was also coordinated so that none of those events overlapped. [Then we] worked [on] her email – responding for her, helping her respond to team members in the practice, scheduling meetings, and things like that. It started heavy with scheduling and has grown since then.”

But working with a remote assistant for a medical practice often begs the question: How does it work with HIPAA compliance?

“I left my job as a nurse to come on board with BELAY,” Kim shares. “And before that, I had run a medical practice as well. So I was very familiar with HIPAA – but even if there were no HIPAA, I’d still follow those guidelines.”

And for Leisle, the remote element was actually a selling point and not a hindrance.

“[While] the obvious challenge is being a very team-oriented practice, I have Kim take care of a lot of things that are confidential that I don’t necessarily want our other team members dealing with,” Leisle shares. 

“And I think because Kim is remote, [it] actually helps her in some ways with some of these things because the physical distance then allows her to have this kind of outside perspective. 

“Our team trusts her because they don’t see her day-to-day. She’s not going to be talking about it in the break room. She’s this person offsite who handles things related to the practice, and things related to HR.”

Kim agrees.

“As I’ve taken on a little bit of an HR role [remotely], you don’t get an opinion about people,” Kim adds. “You’re not skewed. You’re just kind of an outside source, a third party who doesn’t have an opinion either way [to whom] you can just relay the information, but also feel like you’re a member of the team.”

“The other thing I would add to that is – and this is where the importance of confidentiality comes in – we gather feedback on individuals and Kim sets all that up, sends out the messages, [and] just runs that whole process,” Leisle says. 

“And then she creates the reports that I get on every team member from entry-level folks, all the way to doctors within our practice. It’s been great having Kim do that and I think, again, this is where her being offsite allows people to trust. I think it also helps the process remain confidential and maintain integrity.”

“It’s always a win when you have a great person who joins your team in any position,” Leisle shares. “But I think even more so in this position because Kim has a lot of access to our practice and to things in my life. 

“There are things that Kim knows about my life that no one else in this practice knows. And that’s a testament to the type of trust that you have to build. 

“She helps me to be more productive because I’m able to just focus on the things that I want to get done. 

“Then I consider her to be just a wonderful human being in my life. Kim makes my life better. So those things make me really just recommend to anyone who’s thinking about getting an assistant through BELAY.”

Kim couldn’t agree more. 

“BELAY does a good job,” Kim adds. “I thought, ‘Oh, this is a lifelong match.’

“And [with] all the good she does for other people, [it’s] inspiring and makes you want to go above and beyond every day so she can continue to change people’s lives. She’s just a good person. 

“She’s a hundred percent present at work. She’s a hundred percent present at home. And I think that’s very inspiring. It gives you something to aspire to and come to work for every week.”