Online Tools You Should Be Offering Your Patients
Posted: July 3, 2019 - By Kalena McElroyThe majority of small businesses and medical practices generate more than half of their annual revenue from returning patients. In order to retain patients, it’s important to provide them with the necessary tools to make communication as seamless as possible. Patients expect a lot from healthcare practitioners, including updated technology and software that helps them easily get the care they need and the ability to manage the process on their terms. Patients expect the online experience to be user-friendly and easily accessible.
The right solution can help both your patients and your staff get things done faster and more efficiently. Here are several online tools patients have come to expect from medical practitioners.
Patient Portals
Patient portals can provide a way for you to connect with patients on a more personal level. With features like appointment dashboards, you can help reduce patient inquiries by providing up-to-date appointment information where they can easily access and view it. Patient portals also come with convenient features like access to online forms and secure messaging. With a patient portal, you can send your patients digital forms for prescription refills, new patient intake, and more to reduce time spent in the office. You can also let patients know the status of the forms they’ve submitted with ease.
Educational Resources
Through a patient portal or blog, you can provide patients with access to a wealth of useful medical information spanning all sorts of topics including medical conditions, treatments, frequently asked questions, office policies, and more. Creating a knowledge base full of information relating to your patients’ most commonly asked questions can not only give your patients trusted medical information, it can also make your medical practice much more efficient. Your patients can easily get online and access the educational resources 24 hours a day. Educational resources can also be useful for staff when looking up answers to questions for patients currently in the office.
Automated Communication
Patients expect appointment reminders, scheduling, cancellations, and all communication to be handled electronically. Finding the right software to help you manage all of these things more efficiently is recommended. Let’s take a closer look at how automating each of these types of communications can help improve the patient experience.
Appointment Reminders
Appointment reminders can be completely automated so that your staff is free to handle more important tasks. Medical practices in all specialties are using automated appointment reminders because it’s a simple and efficient way to remind patients of upcoming appointments. Patients can log in to their personalized patient portal account and access any future appointments right from the dashboard screen. Time is of the essence and automated appointment reminders sent via email, voice, and text save time on both ends.
Scheduling and Cancellations
Scheduling, confirming, or cancelling an appointment can also be done electronically. Give patients the option to manage their appointments without the hassle of calling the office, and tying up phone lines with less than urgent matters. Simplifying a task like this makes a huge difference in the hectic life of a busy patient. Allowing your patients to schedule, confirm, and cancel appointments on their own time lets them know that their needs are a top priority.
Marketing Communications
Keeping your patients coming back for more of the same great care means finding new and creative ways to market your medical practice to them. With marketing communication software, you can reach the right patients at the right time. It costs much less to retain an existing patient than it does to acquire a new one, which is why marketing to your existing patients should be a primary focus.
Email marketing software lets you use pre-built, professional email templates to provide your patients with crisp, clean designs and high-quality images, making it easy to keep your patients engaged with the message. Today, mobile-optimized emails are essential to reach patients who check their inboxes on-the-go. It is also important to find a marketing platform that’s HIPAA compliant and tailored for private practices and small businesses to protect your patients’ data.
Use the above information as a guide when considering ways to better serve your patients. Patients are expecting much more out of their healthcare providers in regards to customer service. That means you’ve got to put patient satisfaction and care first to beat out the competition. Take your practice to the next level with specialized online tools that can help you improve your patients’ experience.
