A Guest Post by Dana Munoz
As a healthcare practitioner, you spend many years studying to become the best you can at your job.
However, nothing in those years of training helps you achieve the necessary skills to truly grow your medical practice business.
You need to consolidate your practice’s position and gain the trust of potential patients.
These aren’t things that happen overnight. Especially in the beginning, you need as many new clients as possible.
With 784,626 companies in the healthcare sector in the US, it may feel difficult to shine when you are a new business. However, it is not an impossible feat you can’t achieve.
Here are 5 tips to help you easily grow your medical practice!
1. Define realistic goals for your business
Dreaming and setting high goals can be good at times. But if you truly want to succeed, you’ll need to set realistic and clear goals for your business.
You probably want to have the most renowned medical practice in town, with hundreds of new clients. But if you’re just starting, chances are that won’t happen tomorrow or next week.
Clear goal setting means you define specifically what you want to achieve in a given time period. For example, you can set a goal to get 10-15 new clients in 2 weeks for instance.
When setting any goals, you need to start looking at your current situation. Taking the example above, a better way to go about it would be to see how many new clients are you currently getting each week.
Now aim to increase that by 5 people within the next few weeks. The same goes for any equipment you need. Ask yourself what it is that you have. Then figure out what you need immediately.
I’m sure you’d love to have all the newest, best equipment that exists. But you might not have the budget for all that. That’s why it’s critical to start with what is of utmost importance.
Finally, you need to know what you want to be known for. What do you want your brand to stand for? What’s your unique selling point? What can you do to get closer to this image, to draw people in?
Setting these objectives in place takes you one step closer to growing your medical business.
2. Hire the right staff
Any business needs the right staff to thrive. Now that you know your brand and what it stands for, you can choose people who are aligned with your business goals.
Finding the right people isn’t everything though. You’ll need to regularly train your staff and inform them about the process flow in the facility.
Remember, customer service should be a priority. Your patients will interact first with your team before they ever get to you. If your staff doesn’t prioritize customer service, patients might be put off no matter how many good things they heard about you.
Remember to cross-train your people to make sure they understand how to interact with customers.
3. Refine the systems of your facility
With the correct goals and the right staff in place, it’s time to take a look at the systems in your medical facility. What systems can be improved? Are there any areas where you can use automation tools? How about the patient care process? Are there any ways to make it simpler?
Automation tools still scare many people as they feel the entire patient care process will be more impersonal, which can lead to issues and unhappy patients.
If that’s you, then you should know you don’t need to automate every process. However, things like using the right billing software, or scheduling software that allows patients to easily pick their preferred time slot will make everyone’s lives easier.
It is estimated that the Internet of Things (IoT) can help decrease costs by $100 billion per year in the healthcare field. That is especially related to the reduction of clinical and operational inefficiencies.
Plus, around 12% of people use IoT devices around the world. While the number may seem relatively small, statistics show a steady increase each year.
In other words, investing in automation tools and IoT technology will help you save costs in the future and it will position you at an advantage in comparison to other medical practices.
4. Market your practice the right way
You may not be a fan of it, but digital marketing can be incredibly helpful when you want to grow your medical practice business.
Start by creating a responsive website that clearly explains what you do, highlights your unique points, and showcases everything your brand stands for. Don’t overlook social media marketing either. Nowadays, many people follow doctors and clinics on social media for daily health tips.
When done correctly, social media ads are a powerful tool that can help you get new patients quickly.
Choosing the right type of ads requires a bit of research. Find out your patients’ demographics: where do they live, how old are they, what’s their gender, or other defining characteristics?
Make sure your ads reach them in a way that matters, tap into their emotions to grab their attention quickly, but also remember to keep it simple.
Finally, make sure your ads represent your brand well. Your logo, colors, fonts, or even the writing style can define your brand and help you be recognizable in a pool of posts and ads people see on the Internet everyday.
5. Prioritize quality patient care
It doesn’t matter how many new clients you attract each day, or how well your goals are defined. If you don’t prioritize quality patient care, you could end up losing the clients quicker than you gained them.
In other words, you need to connect and engage with patients not just when they want to come to the clinic or when they are there, but also afterward.
Set up a system that allows you to follow up with patients after each appointment. Offer them information and help them understand their diagnosis and their treatment. Also, don’t forget to be up-to-date with guidelines about patient privacy and security.
A good way to ensure you’re delivering the best services is to look at your practice from your patient’s perspective by putting yourself in their shoes.
Are you being treated with care and respect? Are your concerns heard? If you feel the answer to any of these questions could be ‘no’, you need to improve that part of your practice.
Lastly, respectfully ask for recommendations and reviews from patients. Many might not do it, simply because they don’t like writing reviews.
Regardless of what they think of your practice, don’t take a patient’s refusal personally. On the other hand, some will be glad to leave a positive review, which always helps to build the confidence of potential new customers.
Start Growing Your Medical Practice Today!
Growing your medical practice may take a bit of effort at first. But once you understand the importance of each of these 5 steps, you’ll start making progress effortlessly.
Start with simple, achievable goals in mind that you set after a careful analysis of your business’ needs.
As time goes on, come back to these goals and refine them. As your practice grows, your goals may need to change and that is essential if you want to keep growing your practice.
Create a team of professionals who are aligned with your brand and share your views. Refine the systems of your facility and don’t be afraid to automate processes whenever you can.
Market your agency the right way, choosing ads that represent your brand correctly.
Ultimately, prioritize quality patient care.No matter how many new clients you get, they won’t stay unless they’re happy with the services you provide.
