3 Steps to Improve the Patient Experience at Your Clinic
One of the biggest challenges we face, is making sure patients feel the worth of coming to the office. Remember with an abundance of choices and oversaturation of available offices it is key to make certain patients are getting the most out of every visit to your clinic. Experience is the most viable way to credit one’s office. When a patient has an amazing experience, it is likely you will have a loyal customer/patient and advocate for life. But how do we build that experience?
One way in which we can ensure a patient is “getting their money’s worth” is to offer new material EVERY visit. This does not have to be exercises alone, this information can extend to different varieties such as breathing techniques and meditation. (We find these types of editorials compliment what our therapists are trying to do for and with the patient.)
By offering educational materials you are not only informing the patient but also helping them to take ownership of their ailment. One of the greatest gifts you can give to a person in recovery is the feeling that they are in control of their lives and what is happening to their bodies or at the very least how to understand and listen to their bodies. After all the idea is that should the patient encounter the ailment after discharge or even during treatment, they can apply some of the processes they have learned in the clinic to manage the circumstance. They are learning to how to combat and to take charge of the problem at hand.
Another way we can ensure the patient is healing at a rate that is acceptable for them is to offer elective services that may help to expedite the healing process. (For instance, massage therapy, red light therapy, or cold laser.) Unfortunately, by nature most people expect a quick fix and if you can offer add-on services you have a chance of helping them get better, faster. (And perhaps to make a little extra revenue for the clinic.) There are a number of tools and resources that you can incorporate into treatments that deliver a pretty heavy impact on the rate of healing. This not only boosts the patients chances of making gains faster but also allows them to see those gains quicker.
Implementing new technologies in your offices and keeping up to date with the latest and greatest techniques available may seem daunting but it is almost a necessary evil. As the world, itself is in constant change so is the realm in which we receive and teach information. Today’s technique may be obsolete tomorrow. Evolution of treatments is required to keep up with the fast-changing pace of practice.
It is crucial to make every visit count, to make a strong and lasting impression with your patients. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb and try something new. By switching things up you can show your patients you are doing what it takes to help them, what it takes to get them better. An investment in training, a new gadget, or a new treatment might just be what sets you apart from the “robot” clinic down the street. With so many options such as simply searching on the internet people have access to enough information to make them feel as if seeing a professional is not necessary. It is up to you and your staff to make yourselves relevant, sometimes this means going out of the norm or your regular comfort zone, introducing new things into the office and setting in place new standards by which you and your patients should rise.
