Growing Your Medical Practice: Tips for Success
Physicians who own their own practice are not just doctors. They often wear many hats, including CEOs, operations managers, and entrepreneurs. It’s not uncommon when doctors get burnt out and feel disenchanted with their own business since a lot of their time is spent on administrative tasks, instead of doing what they love: treating and caring for patients.
Growing your practice while juggling an enormous amount of business tasks, daily operations, and paperwork is overwhelming. The Affordable Care Act gave over 20 million Americans insurance who need healthcare – growth should be inevitable. However, that isn’t always the case.
Maybe your practice isn’t growing like you think it should. Or maybe you’ve tried a few methods to get more patients to your practice and it hasn’t worked. We’re here to share a few small, low-cost methods that are proven to give big-time results. Increase your patient base without increasing the bottom line.
Tips for Growing Your Medical Practice
Online Reviews
It’s a fact: people are going online to read reviews. Even the least tech-savvy patient will still look online before making an appointment with a new doctor. The transparency of review sites like WebMD, Health Grades, and Google allows people to leave honest reviews about their experiences, and the business owners are unable to edit the reviews.
Of course, this can be scary to practices who fear they will get negative reviews. With a process in place to monitor your online presence, negative reviews can work in your favor. They allow you to publicly reply and help potential patients see that you care about your patients and take the time to listen to complaints. Negative reviews also allow practices to see if there are any trends in negative reviews and reflect on how they can make changes internally to better their practice.
Boost Social Media Presence
While sharing sensitive information on social media is not allowed, many doctors are taking to social media platforms like Facebook and even Instagram to educate their patients in an informal, friendly manner. Social media allows your practice to get in front of a wider audience and create interest. Marketing campaigns can attract your target audience to “like” your page, book appointment, and provide general information like hours and the services you provide.
By sharing relevant information frequently, more people will see your page and business. If your website has a blog, provide wellness tips, information about treatments you provide, or the way your practice operates. Sharing unique content on social media is a great way to engage with patients and get new eyes on your business.
Nurture Your Existing Patients
Growth frequently makes people think of new patients. But nurturing the patients you already have helps grow your practice. Just because someone has booked an appointment before, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll come back. The goal is to increase retention while reducing a high turnover rate (the amount of single-visit patients).
The best way to retain patients and have them keep coming back is through email. It is the most effective marketing channel for repeat patients. It builds trust, puts relevant information right in front of them, and is accessible. Email personalization makes patients feel more connected to their doctors. Be sure to add a call-to-action at the end of each email so they can book an appointment!
Stay Up to Date
Staying up to date on the latest medical technology and trends is important to both growth and customer retention. Patients do not want to visit an outdated doctor that doesn’t use the most recent medical knowledge or technology to treat them. Stay educated on what’s new and have your staff follow suit. This isn’t just required for treatment offerings, but also billing systems and moving to a digital world and automation.
Automation not only reduces your overhead, but allows physicians to do more of what they love, and less administrative tasks. Automatic appointment reminders, billing systems, and coding systems help doctors make decisions more effectively and treat patients better.
Shift in Services
Always be sure that your services reflect what your demographic needs. If you are a pain management practice, offer outpatient services and treatments that don’t require invasive surgeries. If you are a general medicine practice and you are seeing more families join, consider adding a pediatrician to your practice. If you are not offering what your target audience needs and wants regarding their healthcare, they are likely to find another doctor who does.
This also includes adding a Telehealth option for your service list. Many patients, especially those considered high risk, do not feel comfortable going into a doctor’s office for a routine check-up during the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth is the future of healthcare, since it lowers overhead costs for physicians and allows patients to receive healthcare from the comfort of their own homes. It is more accessible for those who are unable to drive and doctors can see more patients, more effectively through this platform.
If you are interested in making a shift to grow your practice but are unsure where to start, working with a growth management firm can help steer your path. Work with the team at MyeMed to grow your practice successfully.
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