. . . Practicing
Medicine with a Retailer’s Mindset – Part II
The rules of medicine have changed. To remain successful, physicians must be
concerned with not only quality-of-care but also the quality of the referrer
and patient experience. Consider these strategies for leveraging technology to
deliver an extra measure of customer service to your patients and referrers.
- Use state-of-the-art voice recognition and reporting systems to ensure that your patient report is timely and easy-to-read. Choose a system that caters to physician preference with delivery via email, fax, remote printing and EMR interface. Also, look for one offering automated critical results communications.
- If your practice provides diagnostic testing, enable easy access to the full test results online, again possibly through a physician portal.
- Online exam ordering or scheduling is a major convenience for referrers and immediately locks in your new patient relationships—avoiding patient shopping for other providers.
- Take advantage of analytics technology to eliminate workflow bottlenecks, helping boost appointment time turnaround and avoid long office wait times as well as speeding referring physician reporting.
- Make all patient forms available digitally for completion before an appointment—either through email or a patient portal.
- Train your team to provide a pleasant patient interaction, from the first phone call to the time patients leave the office.
Also, while
a physician contact management system delivers a real boost for referral
marketing, you can also use it as a customer service tool. Automating periodic
referrer and patient appreciation emails is essentially service with a smile,
and a great way to keep your practice top of mind.
Join us next time for a detailed discussion on choosing a
voice recognition and reporting platform to optimize interaction with your
referring physicians.
