As an individual practitioner or small practice owner, you may be short on capital or need more staff. However, you can remain profitable and project loyalty to your existing patients.
The importance of loyalty in medical practice
According to studies, nearly 67 percent of practice owners do not understand the value of patient loyalty. These practice owners often miss out on winning patients and brand ambassadors for life.
8 steps to maximize patient loyalty
1. Get the support of participating physicians and other leaders
Before beginning any service improvement project, enlist the support of physicians and other key decision makers.
2. Ask patients about their experience of care using an Internet-based method.
Gone are the days of using paper or telephone surveys. Real-time patient feedback enables practice managers. And to other decision makers be proactive, “nip the problem in the bud,” as they say, before the situation grows or worsens.
3. Collect and process patient feedback on an ongoing basis
The Internet has made collecting patient feedback affordable. Compared to paper or telephone surveys, an Internet-based survey costs. Internet-based surveys, when implemented with the patient in mind. They allow the patient to provide their perspective on their experience, which in turn enables practice managers and other practice leaders the ability to better manage their practice, from the patients’ perspective.
4. ACT on patient feedback immediately when appropriate
Some healthcare professionals believe that only dissatisfied patients complete patient experience surveys. What is simply not accurate, 90% of patients, or more, give the highest possible ratings.
5. Convey compliments to the patient shortly after the patient visit.
As mentioned above, with over 90% of patients giving the highest possible scores. Valuable feedback is gained from patients who are indeed very satisfied and very happy with their healthcare provider and their office visit experience.
By recognizing team members for a job well done, immediately after the positive visit experience (usually the day after the patient visit), support staff are motivated and appreciated for demonstrating excellent customer service. customer.
6. Train and advise staff (when necessary) shortly after the patient visit
Similarly, whenever patients leave unfavorable feedback. Training and mentoring of support staff shortly after service failure helps improve the interpersonal skills of support staff, ensuring that the organization’s standards of behavior are met.
7. Provide clinicians with unique practice results and benchmark comparisons.
An easy-to-navigate interactive reporting system allows clinicians, administrators, and other healthcare professionals the opportunity to look horizontally across their practice and across their organization, comparing their practice to peer group aggregations.
Well-designed report analytics will provide both internal and external benchmarks, allowing specialty-specific comparisons at the click of a button.
That same interactive reporting tool provides a vertical drilldown capability that allows the clinician and other decision makers the opportunity to obtain granular detail when needed.
8. Collaborate with key decision makers: create actionable action plans
Enlist the help and input of the experts around you to create action plans that are actionable and sustainable. Those experts include superstar support staff, highly skilled vendors, and other exceptional team members who know your job and role inside and out.
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