Medical practices must focus on delivering a great patient experience to deliver better outcomes, provide outstanding health care services and increase patient loyalty.
High-quality healthcare should be effective, safe, and patient-centered. As physicians, providing an excellent level of service for patients can increase patient satisfaction, increase reimbursement, and improve the overall medical experience.
With the rise of consumer-directed healthcare, discerning patients want choice and are expecting a higher level of service, including better care, more quality time with a physician and less time in the waiting room.
Establishing a good relationship with your patients can help both your patient and your practice. Patients have a choice. Despite being limited by factors beyond their control, most patients prefer to change their doctors to get a better patient experience.
Also, increased patient loyalty means more referrals and word-of-mouth business. Patients will be more likely to talk about your services with their family, friends, and colleagues. This means more patients and an increased bottom line.
Here are some simple strategies you can implement in your medical practice to improve patient loyalty:
Create a Patient-Centric Culture
The traditional thinking about the doctor-patient relationship, where the physician is largely in control, is giving way to the customer-provider relationship for good reasons. The move toward consumer-directed healthcare means that providers need to focus on providing an experience that keeps patients loyal and proves value. Ensure you and all providers develop a clear vision for patient care.
Improving delivery of a great patient experience makes everyone´s job easier. Satisfied patients lead to more accommodating patients, which makes a smoother experience for your practice overall. This symbiotic relationship is valuable as it helps create trust, which should be the goal for every medical practice.
Request frequent feedback
Each patient who comes into your practice is a potential critic who can provide invaluable feedback. This plays a huge role in quality improvement and professional development. Measure your patients’ satisfaction through diverse ways such as: online surveys, informal feedback, or voluntary events.
Ask patients about their experience, expectations and understand what is most important to them. The feedback informs you of the factors driving or hindering patient loyalty.
If a patient expresses concern or mentions an unpleasant experience, take the necessary steps to resolve the issue right away. Don´t let it linger or the patient may have a bad taste in their mouth when they receive that next appointment reminder.
Simplify things for patients
Ensure your patient experience is uncomplicated and enjoyable. Some things such as check in, annual paperwork updates, new patient forms, and other administrative tasks can be simplified to facilitate the process for your patients. These simplifications can make things easier for your staff as well, so it´s a win for both parties.
Also, ensure coordination of care is seamless. Sending records, referrals or calling a provider for the patient to help them schedule. These things create raving fans out of your patients. Learn more about strategies you can implement with your front desk staff on our blog Improve your front desk processes with these best practices.
Deliver value & engage with your patients
Patients want to identify your practice´s mission and values. Make sure your patients understand what you do and the value you add to their lives. Identify what sets your practice apart from your competitors to stand out from the rest.
Hold staff accountable for actions they are or are not to take for your patients. Follow up and follow through is at the top of everyone’s list, not just patients.
You’d be surprised at how far a ‘Thank you!’ will go these days. Be nice, build a relationship, and say thank you for their patronage. Let patients know you appreciate them and their trust in your services no matter if they are new or established patients.
Social media is the best platform to position your brand and allow patients to know your services and what you do. This platform will also help you build brand loyalty and improve patient engagement.
Replying with a personal message or updating your patients with general healthcare-related news is a great way to humanize your brand and strengthen the relationship.
If you want to know more about how to market your medical practice read our blog How to market your medical practice and improve your business.
Follow these strategies to improve patient loyalty to your medical practice. Engaged patients are loyal patients. After all, patient loyalty is about reaching out and nurturing the patients who help your practice grow.
If you want to know more about how you can increase patient loyalty, reduce your administrative burden, and get back to what matters most: patients, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].
Set up a meeting with us and discuss how we can help you get your practice back in its prime.
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