Attracting new patients assumes increasing importance as reimbursement declines and rising patient responsibility in the form of higher deductibles and copays diminishes the frequency of visits by insured patients. Fortunately, there are numerous ways that practices, even smaller practices with negligible marketing budgets, can g
arner new patient volume. Technology represents for many practices a largely untapped resource for generating new volume. Practices also often neglect the more traditional opportunities to attract new patients by engaging with potential patients through free seminars or by offering free screenings at health fairs.
Many practices still lack their own website. 72 percent of U.S. adults used the internet to look up health information, according to Pew Internet Research, and 60 percent of patients indicated that they thought that internet information was the “same as” or “better than” the information provided by their physicians. These and other findings underscore the importance of an online presence for practices hoping to attract new patient volume. By putting patient friendly information about specific conditions or treatments, practices can direct some of this traffic to their site. The Pew survey also found that many of these searches were conducted on behalf of other people, meaning that practices have an opportunity to reach family members who are key decision makers in the care of older parents and others. Once patients arrive at your website and find useful information, there should be a “call to action,” such as scheduling a consultation. In general, the easier it is to make an appointment or request information through the website, the more likely it is that your potential patient will convert to an actual patient.
When was the last time you looked at your physician ratings on sites like Vitals.com, RateMD, and Healthgrades? Many practices don’t retrieve patient feedback from ratings sites regularly, and ratings can change dramatically with just a few reviews, depending on the total volume of reviews. The Pew survey found that 20 percent of patients looking for doctors reviewed online rankings and reviews. Another study by Hanauer et al. found that 40 percent of respondents said that physician rating sites were “very important” for selecting a physician. Of the respondents who looked to online physician ratings sites in the last year, 35 percent reported that they chose a physician based on good ratings, while 37 percent said they avoided a physician with bad ratings. Ratings sites have enough of an impact to warrant consideration. Written comments can provide valuable information about patient perceptions of physicians and employees. Practices hoping to improve their ratings can encourage patients who have good experiences to rate them online. It’s helpful to pre-print the URLs of ratings sites on a piece of paper and ask patients to participate. Some practices save the rating site URLs to “favorites” and ask patients to fill them out on a tablet in the office to improve their response rates.
Providing free services, such as health screenings, at health fairs or offering free seminars at venues like the YMCA, senior centers, or local hospitals offer great ways to interact with potential new patients and educate the community about the practice’s services. Despite being familiar with these ways to attract new volume, many practices don’t make implementation a priority. If your practice is too bogged down with administrative headaches to maintain an ongoing presence in the community and proactively interface with patients, it may be time to consider outsourcing some of the back office activities, such as billing and collections, which pull staff away from patient and community interactions.
