They say that nothing succeeds like success. With that in mind, how can you create a successful medical practice that continues on an upward trend? The most important thing a practice can do is provide quality care. From there, we offer a few suggestions on how to elevate any medical facility. The success of a medical practice is achieved through internal and external strategies: practice management and marketing.

Practice Management

As already mentioned, the foundation for a successful medical practice is quality patient care. That goal is augmented by providing excellent customer service, keeping records up-to-date and organized, and basing procedures and practice management on defined and achievable goals.

It’s All About People

The people in an organization make all the difference between a successful medical practice and an unsuccessful one. Surround your practice with successful people and teams, those who know their business and have a drive to improve and elevate their work environment. Remember that patients are the lifeblood of a practice, so give each one the best care possible. 

Communication Is Key

Listen when patients explain their symptoms and challenges. While an attending physician may know pretty quickly how to help, patients do not want to feel that they are being shuffled along as part of an assembly line. Patient treatment is improved when healthcare professionals remember that people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Patients are more likely to develop loyalty with a business or practice if that practice communicates with them in the manner most convenient for the patient. The most successful medical practices have many methods at hand to relay information to their patients. These may include texts, calls, emails, signage around the facility, and notifications on the practice’s website and on social media.

Embrace Delegation 

Healthcare providers are able to provide the best healthcare when they can focus on doing so. Have staff dedicated to administrative work so doctors and nurses can focus on diagnosing, chart prep, blood work, and prescribing treatment. Delegation can also help minimize the risk of burnout among staff. 

Outsourcing your medical billing is a help strategy for building a successful medical practice for two reasons. Doing so allows medical staff to focus on what they are best at: providing patient care. It lends an outlet so healthcare workers do not need to spend valuable time sifting through billing information or “dead claims.” Outsourcing the billing also gives a practice plenty of space to grow. 

Resource Management

Use your resources correctly and wisely. Stay on top of current research and emerging technologies, and implement these in a way that your practice can support. This may include online or over-the-phone treatment options, like telehealth. These solutions make healthcare more accessible across the world.

Wisely managing available resources also includes the space in your clinic. Do you have a room that is not being used? Perhaps more storage space would be more valuable as another treatment room or a space to analyze tests. Maximize the resources you already have.

Follow the Money

Successful medical practices always have a budget and work within them wisely. Have a plan for every expenditure and be mindful of the inventory you already have. Make sure that every piece of your practice’s medical equipment is being used effectively to generate business and revenue.

Marketing

If you want to build a successful medical practice, have good marketing strategies. This may seem an odd priority for a medical practice, which should never be confused with a fortune 500 company, but it remains very important for medical practices to build their loyal patient base. In our digital age, over 72% of Americans begin their search for healthcare providers online. Your online presence should be easy to find, easy to navigate, and easy to understand. 

First Impressions

In both your in-person facilities and your online content, walk through and try to see it through the eyes of a patient. Is the layout pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate? Is there any technical jargon that a layman must decipher? Does your physical location speak of professionalism, competence, and compassion? Does the waiting room put patients at ease? You only get one shot at a first impression, so make sure that yours reflects well on your practice.

Know Your Audience

In the marketing material you put out, know your audience. Direct your content toward potential patients, other physicians, insurance companies, etc. and be consistent. With all the content you produce, work toward the goal of gaining new patients.

The goal of most enterprises is to expand. It is a token of success and allows a business to reach more people. The process, however, isn’t always easy. If you are looking to expand your medical practice, consider these suggestions.

Be Accessible Online

We live in a digital world. This was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we continue to shift in that direction. If you want to expand your medical practice, it must be able to keep up with online methods. Patients have come to expect this online accessibility, with up to 78% reported to want contactless healthcare care options instead of traditional in-person, paper-based processes.

Navigating this digital landscape will include a variety of readily available services. These may include online self-scheduling for appointments, digital intake forms, and access to personal insurance and medical information, all of which improve the convenience of accessing a medical practice, for both patient and practice.

Patients also appreciate ready access to their medical billing information. Using Aspen Ridge Medical’s billing process allows patients to get real-time figures regarding their medical finances, and it provides practices with updated billing and payment information, allowing the practice to focus on providing excellent care.

The Power of the People

Word-of-mouth is still an excellent and one of the most powerful ways to expand your medical practice. In this day and age, those word-of-mouth recommendations are exchanged online. This includes patients sharing their recommendations online with both people they know, through social media, and people they do not through online reviews.

Especially if patients are new to an area, Google is often the first place they look to research medical practices in the area. This entails scouring through online reviews before choosing a physician. Data indicates that the vast majority of patients consider a positive online reputation very important when selecting their preferred medical practice.

If your patients are analyzing your online reviews, you had better do the same if you want to expand your medical practice or even maintain current patient volumes. Look at online reviews to see what kind of impression your practice creates before people even see the building, and while it may not initially feel like it, you have a lot of control over the response to your reviews.

Take patient’s concerns seriously. In your practice’s negative online reviews, look for trends. If certain complaints come up regularly (long wait times, confusing billing practices, terrible waiting room music), take steps to correct these issues. On review sites that make it possible to comment on patient’s reviews, respond to both recommendations and complaints with courtesy and proactivity. This will increase patients’ and prospective patients’ confidence that you are mindful of their concerns and good at listening in general.

Increasing the number of good reviews floating around the internet can certainly help expand your medical practice. You can encourage reviews from your regular patients by posting signage with links to your review page or QR codes to surveys. You can also send this access in reminder texts and emails for appointments or prescription refills.

Digital Marketing

Reviews are not the only aspect of an online presence that should reflect well on your practice. Functionality of your website, availability of social media accounts, and the design of both play a big role in the first impression your practice makes. Monitoring these can be a full-time job, which is why we recommend delegating the process to a professional digital marketing team if you want to expand your medical practice. In this way, healthcare practices can focus on providing quality healthcare to patients and let professionals in the marketing realm manage the practice’s online presence.

A professional digital marketing team can also track the metrics of your practice’s online presence: how many people search for it, access the site, share the site’s content, etc. This will give you a clear picture of what is working in your online approach so you can keep doing what works and stop doing what doesn’t.

Until Next Time

Be on-the-ball about scheduling return appointments at the end of each appointment. While this may feel like an obvious suggestion, it is a task that is easily missed. However, scheduling the next appointment before a patient leaves shows that patient that he or she is valued by your practice. People appreciate clear instructions moving forward, so having a next appointment set gives clarity and indicates a level of commitment and dedication that will only strengthen your practice’s overall patient loyalty.

Many Hands

If you are ready to expand your medical practice in a more dramatic way, consider increasing the size of your team. Employing more staff can minimize patient wait times and free up physicians to provide more focused care. If you have the means (personnel-wise) and the demand for it, consider expanding the type of care you offer. In addition to the general or specialized care you already provide, you may choose to include services that cater to metal or behavioral health as well.

October is Organize Your Medical Information Month. At this spooky time of year, don’t let a medical scare or legal action haunt you. Make it a priority to organize your medical information with these four suggestions. 

The Importance of Organizing Your Medical Information

There are many reasons you may need to have ready access to your medical information. Your medical provider may require them for verification; if any legal dispute regarding your medical history or care arises, your records may be needed in evidence; and your own perusal may be called for if you make changes to your care regimen. For example, Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) runs from October 15th through December 7th, so if you organize your medical information now, you will have all the information necessary to enter the program as needed. 

Ensuring that you organize your medical information is beneficial in a very general sense as well. Those who do generally enjoy better health. This is likely linked to being more cognizant and aware of one’s health, though it also means that medical providers have the information they need to administer the most advantageous care. In an emergency, it is critical to have such information at the ready. In your efforts to organize your medical information, we recommend the following steps:

Keep All Medical Records in One Secured Place

The first step when you organize your medical information is to gather all of it in one place. Though this may initially take quite a bit of effort, the time saved in an emergency situation or when the need arises is critical. Because every piece of your medical history in forming a complete picture, more is more: store everything, no matter how significant it may feel.

When gathering your medical information, ask your physician for help. Your doctor’s office is a good source for all the relevant records in one place. The staff may also be able to retrieve records from other medical facilities. These are the kind of things to include in your records:

• Basic personal information including blood type
• A list of allergies, including allergies to pharmaceutical drugs or food
• A list of current and past medications (including any side effects)
• A list of chronic health problems, such as arthritis, asthma, diabetes, or high blood pressure
• A basic medical family history especially including known hereditary diseases
• Other information that is vital in case of an emergency (including pacemakers, stents, or hearing and vision problems)
• Information from all visits to a doctor’s office (including date, physician’s name, and notes)
• Dates and results of procedures, tests, or health screenings
• All information about any major illnesses, surgeries, or hospital visits
• Major tests and screenings, especially for cancer, including colonoscopies, Pap tests, mammograms, and PSA (prostate-specific antigen) tests
• Hearing, vision, and dental records
• Immunizations records
• History of childbirth
• A history of any counseling received
• A list of current and past healthcare providers’ and pharmacists’ contact information

Create Order

It isn’t enough to have all your medical information in one place, not if pinpointing what you are looking for is not intuitive. Gathering and cataloging all of your medical documents will guarantee that any information you may need is in one easily navigable place. The system will be unique to the individual, but we recommend having a cover page that includes your name, your date of birth, and your blood type followed by a table of contents. You may choose to sort things chronologically or topically, grouping by medical condition or by kind of document (i.e. prescription or insurance records).

Include All Billing and Insurance Documents

Not all of your medical information will come from the clinic. It is important to keep insurance and relevant billing records with your other medical information as the financial side of healthcare is often where questions or disagreements arise. It’s recommended that you keep insurance statements and bills for at least three years. Insurance disputes can take a while—sometimes years—to get off the ground and to be settled. Keep your statements so there is clarity in case of any dispute.

Keep Electronic and Paper Copies

In this uncertain world, it is important not to keep all your medical information eggs in one basket. As you organize your medical information, keep electronic copies in addition to the physical documents you receive. 

Organizing Your Medical Information with Aspen Ridge Medical 

Individuals are responsible for organizing their own personal medical records. For hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities, it is critical to manage copious amounts of medical information for copious amounts of patients. The challenge increases exponentially. Fortunately, there are strategies and services that make a very daunting process manageable. If you are a medical provider and need better systems to organize your medical information, Aspen Ridge Medical can help.