Finding a permanent physician job that compliments your career is one thing, but patient retention is another entirely! When practicing as a physician, you’re always out to provide the best care possible. However, if patients are constantly switching physicians and practices, this becomes harder and harder to do. Consistent care and building solid physician-patient relationships are some of the most integral parts of any practice. Here we’ll discuss patient retention strategies, as well as what patients may be looking for in their physician!
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Whether you’ve just found a new practice or have been in the same location for years, working toward increasing patient retention is a common goal. With so much competition in healthcare already, what can you do to ensure your patients choose your practice? Again, providing consistent healthcare often comes down to your patient retention strategies. This leads us to our first point regarding follow-up visits and more:
5 Patient Retention Strategies
1. Optimize Appointment Scheduling
After a patient’s first visit, scheduling a follow-up visit before they leave your practice is one effective way to ensure they become a regular visitor. In many cases, this comes down to having the right front-desk office person ready to engage with patients new and old. By encouraging patients to revisit, they can work to reassure them that your practice really does care about their wellbeing. Although they may not be in the position to provide direct medical advice, these team members can certainly express the need for repeated visits in order to keep treatments effective.
2. Use Reminder Emails
In addition to scheduling the proper follow-ups, utilizing email is a great way to ensure patients are reminded of their appointment. Shifting this responsibility to your practice can take the pressure off patients. With reminder emails and messages, patients will have a streamlined process from one appointment to the next.
In your emails themselves, it is useful to include a link for scheduling or rescheduling appointments, along with the proper phone numbers. Additionally, consider an offline approach using postcards for patients who may not be tech-savvy. Not only will you retain patients better, but you’ll be able to provide them with a much more personalized approach to their healthcare.
3. Focus on Prevention Efforts
For the best healthcare outcomes, focusing on prevention is one of the best patient retention strategies out there. Far too often, people only see doctors when they have a serious issue. As you know, finding a cure to something is considerably more labor-intensive than preventing the health issue altogether. This message applies to both young and old and is especially lost on healthy adults just going about their lives. Helping patients to become more proactive about their health means your practice will play a more consistent role.
Of course, there are other methods available to help make prevention a priority. Many practices today utilize website banners, newsletter or email campaigns, along with social media posts and blogs to provide detailed information. Overall, making your patients aware of the screening services and prevention efforts you offer is one of the best patient retention strategies out there!
4. Provide Health Programs
One of the patient retention strategies that has a larger impact is offering community health programs. Whether it’s weight management, physiotherapy, or something like diabetes management workshops, patients and their communities have much to gain. This takes prevention to a more communal level and helps raise awareness of certain patient struggles. Really, this is something that many patients are after, especially those with limited resources and support.
5. Offer Discounts and Other Assistance
If your practice can afford it, providing discounts and other promotions are great ways to retain patients. This approach works particularly well for things like skin or dental services, although there are many ways to give patients a chance to cut their costs. Creating packaged deals or similar promotions are great ways to help bring patients back to your practice. Additionally, you’ll want to inform patients they can promote these offers on social media and your other outlets.
Overall, patient retention strategies are about serving your patients consistently and responding to their needs. These techniques may not fit all practices, but if you’ve had success with one or more of our tips, share your experience in the comments below!
