Focus on your practice while a HIPAA-trained virtual executive assistant handles scheduling, communication, and administrative tasks starting at $10/hour.
Jennifer: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Ask the Doc. I’m your host, Jennifer Filsen, and today I have with me Sanju Zachariah of Portiva. Welcome, Sanju.
Sanju: Thank you, Jennifer. It’s a pleasure.
Jennifer: I’m so glad you’re here. So tell us all about Portiva and what you guys do.
Sanju: Yeah, definitely. Thanks for having me. A little background about Portiva: my name is Sanju Zachariah, and I’m the owner and CEO of Portiva. We’re a medical staffing company headquartered in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, in the greater Philadelphia area. We started back in 2009, and we had a different focus back then. We were engaged in back-office operations for doctors. We serve healthcare practitioners in general, so we have some dentists, some veterinarians, and so on. Back in 2009, we were focused on back-office operations, doing a lot of medical transcription. That was the main bread and butter of the company.
That continued until the pandemic hit. That’s when things shifted a bit because we started getting calls from our clients asking for more help, especially with front-office operations. We had a situation where people couldn’t come into the office anymore, like the medical assistants, because of restrictions. Doctors were strapped, managing everything themselves. So that’s when we started getting calls from doctors asking, “Do you have people who can help us with phone calls, scheduling, billing, and so forth?” That’s when we started our virtual medical assistant service. We added that to Portiva’s portfolio. That’s how it all began.
Jennifer: That is amazing, and you’re absolutely right. We’re already seeing that doctors are busy doing what they do, practicing and seeing patients. But to also be the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker within your own practice, running the back end, running the front desk, doing all the paperwork, and making sure everything’s sterilized, that’s a lot for one person to handle. So it’s great that you guys are providing a service that gives them the help they need. I’d imagine that with the labor shortage we’re currently seeing, you really are a blessing to a lot of these doctors and practices because it’s hard to find help these days. So are you doing temporary staffing specifically for this, placements that end once they’re no longer needed, or is it more of a headhunting model where you’re placing people permanently in these roles?
Sanju: It’s a permanent placement model. Basically what we do, and I don’t want to call it “disruption,” maybe that’s too harsh or extreme, but we’re looking to disrupt the traditional medical staffing industry. In the old-school way, doctors typically reach out to a medical staffing firm and say, “We need a medical assistant or certified medical assistant,” and they’d have to wait weeks, these days even months, because it’s hard to find people who want to work in an office. A lot of people have retooled because of the pandemic. They’re not going back into offices. Every industry is going through this, restaurants, hospitality, travel. People are having a hard time finding good people willing to work on-site. They’d rather work online.
So basically what we do, Jennifer, is maintain a roster of pre-vetted candidates with medical backgrounds. A lot of them are former nurses, and everything can be done remotely using voice-over-IP and conferencing technologies. A medical staff member gets interviewed and, depending on the doctor’s needs, whether it’s billing, medical scribing, patient scheduling, or other specialties, we already have candidates ready. They go through a process we call “Portiva University,” where they receive rigorous training and testing. Once they’re ready to be placed, they go into a queue. When a doctor reaches out to us, we provide a list of candidates, typically two or three, and ask the doctor to choose the one who resonates best with their practice.
Once that happens, they come on board, and we’ve had a wonderful experience so far. Doctors really like them. They’re logged in when the doctor comes into the office and typically log out when the doctor leaves, though sometimes they’re doing follow-up work even after the doctor leaves, like documentation and catching up. The great thing is that we become an extension of the doctor’s office, and it saves the doctor a lot of time. We have doctors who love their virtual assistants because they’re not taking up physical space in the office. We handle all the benefits, including health insurance, retirement plans, and everything else. The doctor just pays a flat hourly rate.
In the worst case, if the doctor doesn’t feel it’s the right fit after a month or so, which does happen sometimes, we can immediately provide another set of candidates. Compared to the traditional model, where a doctor has to wait weeks, go through interviews, and then start all over again if it’s not the right fit, with Portiva we already have candidates lined up and ready to go. We can typically place a doctor with a trained candidate within hours. We also have doctors’ offices that need more than one virtual assistant, or VA. Those are some of the benefits of the service we provide.
Jennifer: Amazing. Oh my gosh, I love your business model. You’re doing some great work, Sanju, truly. Now, we’re running out of time, but I tell you what, well have to have you come back in the future and tell us a little more about your origin story. In fact, let’s do a quick 30 seconds right now. How did you get into this?
Sanju: Yeah, no, it’s a good question. Portiva started back in 2009, and I’m an engineer by trade, but I have family members and friends in the medical field, some of them doctors. The idea came about because of a bad experience I had at a doctor’s office before 2009. I waited about 45 minutes to be checked in because my primary care office was so inundated, with the staff juggling so many different things. That’s when the idea originated. I felt like doctors need help managing their practice. As good as they are, and they truly are medical professionals, their time should be focused on the patient, not on administrative tasks. That’s how it all started, and that’s how the idea originated.
Jennifer: I love it. You didn’t just complain, you found a solution, and now you have a very happy business because of it. I love that. Well, we’ve run out of time, but truly, thank you, Sanju, for being here. And everyone, thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed hearing about the good work Portiva is doing. If you want to find out more, please go to BuzzTV.iab-buzz.com. Thank you so much for watching, and we’ll see you next time. Bye.
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A virtual executive assistant provides administrative and executive-level support remotely by handling calendar management, email organization, meeting coordination, travel planning, document preparation, task tracking, and other day-to-day operational responsibilities. For healthcare organizations, this allows physicians, practice owners, and executives to spend more time on patient care and strategic decision-making rather than administrative work.
Portiva’s virtual executive assistants are trained to work within healthcare environments and can adapt to your existing workflows while maintaining professionalism, accuracy, and confidentiality.
Portiva provides top-tier virtual medical assistant services designed to enhance healthcare efficiency.
Healthcare executives often balance patient care, staff management, business operations, and regulatory responsibilities simultaneously. Administrative work can quickly consume valuable hours that should be dedicated to leadership.
A virtual executive assistant helps streamline daily operations by supporting routine administrative tasks, improving communication, organizing priorities, and ensuring important responsibilities stay on schedule.
Common benefits include:
We did not enter this industry as a staffing agency. Portiva was built to assist medical practices operationally. Since 2009, we have worked directly with healthcare providers, first in back-office services and later expanding into virtual medical staffing when practices needed remote solutions.
Today, our executive support specialists are pre-vetted, trained, and prepared before placement. They possess the medical knowledge, administrative skills, and HIPAA awareness necessary to support healthcare leaders efficiently.
| Need | Portiva virtual EA | In-office EA | General VA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calendar ownership | Strong fit for recurring scheduling & meeting prep | Strong fit for daily physical presence | Varies by person and process |
| Inbox triage | Strong fit once rules and urgency levels are defined | Strong fit for desk-side collaboration | Works for simple sorting |
| Cost control | Flexible plan tied to workload | Higher fixed overhead & office space | Often lower cost, less consistency |
| Healthcare awareness | Strong fit for patient-facing workflows | Depends on industry background | Usually needs more setup |
| Physical errands | Not the right fit | Strong fit | Usually not the right fit |
| Speed to value | Fastest when workflows are narrow & recurring | Slower needs space & coverage | Fast for basic tasks only |
Healthcare executives often balance patient care, staff management, business operations, and regulatory responsibilities simultaneously. Administrative work can quickly consume valuable hours that should be dedicated to leadership.
A virtual executive assistant helps streamline daily operations by supporting routine administrative tasks, improving communication, organizing priorities, and ensuring important responsibilities stay on schedule.
Coordinate appointments, meetings, provider schedules, and important deadlines while minimizing scheduling conflicts.
Organize inboxes, prioritize communications, draft responses, and ensure important messages receive timely attention.
Schedule meetings, prepare agendas, coordinate attendees, and assist with follow-up action items.
Track ongoing projects, organize documentation, monitor deadlines, and help keep initiatives moving forward.
Manage travel arrangements, conference registrations, accommodations, and executive itineraries when needed.
Prepare reports, presentations, meeting notes, spreadsheets, and business correspondence with accuracy and professionalism.
── WHO'S BEHIND THIS
Sanju Zachariah
Founder & CEO, Portiva
Sanju Zachariah is the Founder and CEO of Portiva, a healthcare staffing company he established in 2009 to help medical practices reduce administrative burdens and operate more efficiently. Before founding Portiva, Sanju worked as a management consultant at Accenture and PwC, where he gained extensive experience in process improvement and operational strategy.
Inspired by firsthand frustrations with inefficiencies in healthcare administration, he built Portiva to provide scalable virtual support that allows healthcare professionals and business leaders to focus on higher-value work.
2009
3
US
Portiva’s virtual executive assistants work alongside your existing team using your preferred communication platforms, scheduling systems, and productivity tools.
Rather than replacing internal staff, they extend your administrative capacity, allowing executives and managers to delegate routine operational work while maintaining full visibility into daily activities.
Scheduling, patient messages, insurance admin, records routing, billing support, follow-ups.
Appointment coordination, reminders, treatment plan admin, billing-related support.
Client communication, scheduling, records updates, recurring admin work.
Inbox triage, calendar defense, meeting prep, vendor coordination.
Process documentation, recurring reports, task tracking, internal follow-up.
Lead follow-up, CRM cleanup, meeting coordination, proposal routing.
Physician Burnout is Trending Down
Share of physicians reporting at least one symptom of burnout, 2022–2024.
Source: American Medical Association
Calvin Elado
“We were overwhelmed with calls while our staff focused on in-clinic patients. Portiva came highly recommended, and since bringing on Jennifer as our Virtual Front Desk Receptionist, things have run much more smoothly.”
Stephen Sisselman
“I am currently employing and managing 3 virtual medical assistants in various roles including billing, population health and back office. These exemplary individuals are smart, self-starters who can be trained to perform new tasks.”
Aly Gonzalez
“Prior to Portiva, I used another virtual staffing agency and I was not happy with the candidates or the service. Portiva does an excellent job pre-screening qualified candidates that meet the requirements of the job.”
Brianna Gunther
“It has been a pleasure working with Portiva and their VMAs. Before working with them, we faced challenges managing the increasing workload that came with our growth, especially with limited on-site space.”
Find answers to your queries about Portiva’s virtual executive assistant services.
Your business may need a virtual executive assistant when routine administrative work, scheduling, email management, and project coordination take time away from strategic priorities. Portiva’s virtual executive assistants help business owners and executives manage these responsibilities remotely so they can focus on growth and decision-making.
