Strategies for retaining patients should be at the forefront of your practice objectives. Otherwise, your patient churn – the rate at which patients leave your practice – will impact financial stability and continuity of care.
Your patient churn rate offers insight into your practice’s effectiveness. If it’s high, you’ll need to investigate further and take steps to improve retention. Even minor improvements can drive patient satisfaction and loyalty, enhance access to care, and deliver an exceptional experience.
Below, we’ll examine strategies for reducing patient churn while improving the overall patient experience. Let’s begin!
Nurturing relationships with your patients is critical to success as a healthcare practice. Whether they’re first-time or long-term patients, you should focus on their overall satisfaction. After all, you want your patients to return for their medical needs in the future.
A high retention rate reflects the positive experience you provide to your patients. It demonstrates your practice’s emphasis on building trust, loyalty, and connection with your patients.
But if your retention rate is low, patients may be unhappy with their care at your clinic and choose to go elsewhere.
Patient churn affects your clinic’s revenue and reputation. Financially speaking, your current patients are 60-70 percent more likely to return for future care than new patients, who have only a 5-20 percent chance of returning. Retaining patients is also more cost-effective than finding new ones.
In addition to consistent revenue, having loyal patients has other benefits. Existing patients can provide word-of-mouth referrals, which are invaluable to your practice. Focusing on patient satisfaction can establish a reputation for delivering exceptional care.
Churn within your healthcare practice is inevitable, but there are proven strategies for patient retention.
Before creating a plan, you need to calculate your churn rate. Do this by selecting the time frame you want to calculate, like monthly or annual. Identify the number of patients at the start of the period and how many were lost by the end. Once you have these figures, use the following calculation:
Patient Churn Rate = (Number of patients lost in the period / Total number of patients at the start of the period) x 100
After determining your churn rate, you’ll have to collect and analyze data on why patients leave.
A patient’s reason for moving on will vary depending on the person. However, there are several common reasons for patient dissatisfaction in healthcare.
The relationship between you and your patient relies on effective communication. Patients want you to ask the right questions and to listen when they speak.
Beyond communication during and after appointments, regularly connecting with your patients is crucial. A monthly newsletter outlining your office’s happenings will keep your patient abreast of changes and improvements.
Patients with medical concerns don’t want to wait weeks for an appointment or test results. Excessive wait times can lead to significant frustration and potentially cause them to seek care elsewhere.
Many patients seek alternative care due to poor relationships with medical staff. While bedside manners might not appear that significant, it’s the reason thirty-five percent of patients leave their physician.
In this digital age, it’s more important than ever for patients to have information at their fingertips. The ability to schedule appointments online or access records digitally helps create an excellent patient experience.
Trust is the backbone of the patient-physician relationship. Patients are looking for both empathy and respect when seeking medical advice. Patients also want to trust you’re skilled, you’ll respect their privacy, and you’ll act ethically.
While the above list is helpful, gathering patient feedback is the best approach. The reasons patients are leaving your practice may be unique – and so, too, must be your strategies to reduce your patient churn.
Collecting information regarding patient satisfaction should be an ongoing practice so that you can address issues as they arise.
As a healthcare provider, you must continually refine your practice to meet patients’ evolving needs and expectations. In this section, we’ll explore strategies to enhance patient satisfaction and retention rates.
Build a trustworthy foundation with your patients through active listening and timely communication. Consider the following when it comes to better communication and engagement:
Waiting can be incredibly frustrating for your patients. An online booking tool improves the patient experience and can reduce in-office wait times. Appointment scheduling technology can also remind patients of their appointments via email or text messages. Reminders can reduce your no-show rate and, in turn, improve wait times.
Remember, patients wait for more than just their appointments. By automating tasks such as lab bookings or medication orders, you can improve the patient experience. These efficiencies also streamline the administrative burden of your medical staff.
An online presence for your practice benefits new and existing patients. A professional website and social media engagement can build trust in your services. Showing up online attracts new patients and maintains your connection with existing patients.
Like many other industries, online reviews are becoming increasingly important in healthcare. Studies show that 90 percent of patients utilize online reviews when searching for a new physician. How you treat your existing patients affects what people write in online reviews, which, in turn, affects your reputation.
While a negative review can be detrimental, it can also provide valuable feedback for improvement. By monitoring your online reviews and using the data for positive changes, you can create a better patient experience.
Your staff is your patients’ primary point of contact and sets the tone for your entire medical practice. Investing in their knowledge through ongoing training will significantly impact patient retention.
Teaching hard skills is important, but soft skills training is also important. Empathy, compassion, and customer service skills training can significantly improve the patient churn rate.
Patients entering your office want a positive experience starting at the front door. If administrative tasks burden your staff, they’re less likely to engage with patients effectively. By investing in a virtual medical receptionist for appointment bookings and common inquiries, your staff can focus more on patient care.
Data analytics are integral to improving the patient experience and reducing your churn. But first, you’ll need to implement methods to obtain and store these valuable insights. You can collect helpful feedback through the following means:
Once you have a process to collect feedback, you can use this information to identify patterns leading to patient dissatisfaction. Up-to-date feedback allows you to tailor solutions to the issues impacting your medical practice specifically.
Personalized experiences instill a sense of value in your patients by catering to their preferences and circumstances. Opportunities to personalize your patient experience and drive satisfaction and retention include:
By adjusting your approach to patients or integrating technological solutions, you can customize the patient’s experience. These opportunities allow you to address patient dissatisfaction and establish loyalty to your practice.
Patient churn within the healthcare industry impacts your office’s financial stability and jeopardizes continuity of care. When you understand why patients leave, you can implement strategies to improve the overall patient experience and reduce this important metric.
For assistance refining your office’s patient experience, contact us today for a demo of our solutions.
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