patient relationship management

Patient Relationship Management Software | Look for These 10 Essential Features

Patient relationship management (PRM) software is a must for every practice. PRM solutions can streamline your patient communication throughout the patient journey and foster stronger patient engagement. As digital communications have surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, having a PRM solution has become even more critical.

PRM solutions can also help you streamline front office tasks and empower you to deliver better quality experiences to your patients. However, not all PRMs are a good fit. In order to get the best results for your practice, make sure your patient relationship management solution has these ten essential features that can help you build strong connections with your patients.

#1: Email Marketing

Sending a regular email is a great way to stay top-of-mind with your patients. Whether you opt for regular newsletters or focused campaigns, your PRM should provide customizable templates to make it easy to showcase your brand and deliver relevant messages. Look for a PRM solution that offers email audience segmentation, a complete history of campaigns, and robust performance monitoring.

#2: Text Messaging

Texting has become the #1 preferred method of communication for many consumers. In fact, Statista reports that U.S. consumers exchanged more than two trillion text messages in 2019. Your PRM solution should include texting features that help you reach patients wherever they are. Look for bulk texting features that let you send important messages to patients, along with two-way texting, appointment reminders, and review requests.

#3: Appointment reminders

Recent studies have shown that missed appointments cost the U.S. healthcare industry more than $150 billion each year. You can prevent missed appointments by choosing a PRM solution with customized appointment reminders to reach patients via text, email, and voice. A high-quality PRM solution gives you the flexibility to schedule reminders at a cadence that works for your practice and patients while integrating seamlessly with your scheduling solution. 

#4: Recall Messaging

Inactive patients are a common concern for many medical practices. It’s a good strategy to send patients who have become dormant a reminder to re-engage with your practice. A sound PRM solution must support automated recall messaging to let patients know when to schedule annual check-ups or other appointments. Automated recall reminders sent via email, text, and voice are a must to seamlessly reconnect with disengaged patients. 

#5: Online Booking

Today, consumers appreciate the convenience of scheduling appointments online for everything from hair appointments to vehicle maintenance. Medical practices can tap into this trend by selecting a PRM solution that offers online booking. Add a calendar widget to your site that syncs with your scheduling system and receive email alerts for each new appointment. View all of your appointments from a central dashboard and accept, flag, or reschedule with ease.

#6: Mobile Appointment Check-In

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, limiting face-to-face contact has become imperative, especially for medical practices. Advanced PRM solutions let you implement a fully contactless mobile check-in process—including day-of appointment reminders, screening forms, and text alerts to let patients know you’re ready to see them. When the pandemic wanes, you can keep mobile processes in place to streamline check-ins and reduce the administrative burden for your front-desk team. 

#7: Patient Portal

Although the digital transformation was already underway in healthcare, the COVID-19 outbreak pushed many people to explore ways to engage with medical providers online. With a patient portal, you can meet the needs of today’s digitally-savvy patients. A Patient Portal is a key element of your PRM solution and should include an appointment dashboard, appointment scheduling, secure messaging, and opportunities to complete patient forms online. Your patients can use the portal as a one-stop-shop to stay connected between appointments.

#8: Patient Education

Another way to build relationships with patients and help improve health outcomes is by offering patient education. Your PRM solution can help you create patient-centered content for use on your website, email outreach, or in your Patient Portal. That way, you can guide patients to make healthy lifestyle choices or provide insights on specific health conditions while also keeping your practice top of mind with patients.

#9: Reputation Management 

Although word of mouth is still powerful, many consumers look to online reviews as a critical source for information about healthcare providers. In fact, Statista found that 91% of consumers agree that positive online reviews can motivate them to use a business. With a robust PRM solution that includes reputation management, you can send out automated review requests, receive alerts about new reviews, and push them out to the review sites of your choice. You can also keep tabs on your reputation–and track competitive reviews–from a centralized dashboard.

#10: Satisfaction Surveys

Gathering insight with satisfaction surveys and acting on feedback is a must if you want to deliver exceptional customer service. Your PRM solution should make it easy for you to automate this process by sending out a patient survey after each appointment. Use industry-standard questions or customize your own to stay informed about customer sentiment.

Patient Relationship Management is the Cornerstone of your Medical Practice

Providing exceptional, patient-centered care is a chief aim for many medical practices. You may offer high-quality care when your patients visit your office, but you need to extend your focus to consider every touchpoint in the patient journey.

A top-notch PRM solution can help you stay in touch with patients, recall inactive patients, and make appointment scheduling effortless. You can connect with patients via voice, email, and text to reach them wherever they are. You can also stay informed about customer sentiment by automating surveys and turning positive feedback into reviews that help attract new customers.

As a leader in patient relationship management, Demandforce offers an all-in-one PRM solution that helps medical practices automate front office tasks and streamline patient communications. You can learn more about our robust feature set or contact us to discuss how Demandforce can take your medical practice to the next level.

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