Making an appointment to see a doctor is a little like praying to your chosen deity. It tends to happen when times are bad more often than when things are looking good. That’s human nature – one of the many flaws of our otherwise vastly brilliant species.
For doctors, this creates a problem of maintaining long-term relationships with patients. A one-and-done style of seeking healthcare means it’s likely the patient will not see a doctor again for many years and, if they do, they may or may not have the last office they visited in mind. This, in turn, leads to two more complicated dilemmas: it makes it harder for physicians to get a confident grasp on a particular person’s health while also making it harder to stay in business in the first place.
Every physician running their own practice knows the importance of referral business in maintaining a successful office. However, the degree of concern for new patients hinges almost entirely on the previously mentioned phenomenon of folks preferring to see the doctor on a must-need basis. The more repeat business generated the less new patients need to be brought into the office.
Here are the ways in which doctors can increase the rate of return business:
Reconnecting
Practices five years old or older are going to have hundreds if not thousands of inactive patient files. Using software tools, such as Solutionreach Patient Reactivation, can lead to over a 60% increase in return patient rate. It’s a simple matter of reconnecting to past patients at a rate and manner that is difficult to do strictly by calling people back.
Scheduling
Never end an appointment without having a nurse or yourself try and establish another appointment within three months. Inform the patient that preventive care is key to avoiding devastating health issues later on in life. This can only go about through routine, proactive doctors visits.
Social Media
Have a social media presence. More importantly, find an efficient way to keep it relevant and updated on a weekly if not daily basis. The key here is efficiency, unless you want staff to become part-time social media specialists or are in the market to hire a third party to do it for you. Do you read the news? Great – link to health related stories via the office Facebook page.
Reforming
Maybe the reason patients aren’t returning is because there’s something they remember about the experience which was negative. Hey, you can only please some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time, but not everyone at once. However, if the waiting room wall colors are psychologically depressing, or the staff a little surly, it might be time to change things up in order to win back some repeat business.
Responding
Patients, even the repeating ones, are facing their health problems almost exclusively alone. For every hour spent in the observation of medical professionals, they spend days if not weeks handling their health on their own or through the assistance of loved ones. With this in mind, it’s vital for physicians to make an effort to get back to patients when they call about something.
They can’t expect instant gratification, and emergencies are what 911 is for, but when patients are home and worried and willing to call their doctor, it says enormous things about that physician if, at some point in the next few hours, they afford them a five-minute phone call. It may just be the thing that encourages them to actually show up for that next appointment.
Men and women, in general, only go see the doctor when they aren’t well. The preventative stuff is out of sight and out mind. This creates a dilemma for doctors’ offices, which depend on a consistent flow of patients to stay open.
However, the issue may simply be a matter of reconnecting with former patients, encouraging them to be examined more than once every few years, staying in their lives via social media, changing things around the office, and staying in touch. Add these up and the result is repeat business for doctors.
Article Submitted By Community Writer