The daily battle to thrive and grow in the private practice realm of healthcare can be a tough undertaking. Combined with the sometimes high cost of alternative methods of care and the need for more patients, staying afloat is a continuous process at the forefront of many providers’ minds.
While many publications and medical insiders often give a number of ways to increase revenue at a practice, those tips and suggestions sometimes require the practice to have a large sum of money already at their disposal. This can create a bit of a conundrum. How do you manage to grow profits, if all the suggestions require money?
Here are a few low cost tips to help you out:
Email Marketing
The doctor doesn’t just have to make an appearance when it’s time for an appointment. Keep your patients aware of your presence and services by starting an email list that will allow you to regularly contact them, aside from just notifying them of an upcoming appointment. Email marketing works for the practice with a small budget because it’s easy to start and can come at no cost to the practice. A great way to engage with patients and prospects is to send a monthly newsletter that can include news about your practice, new service lines, discounts they can take advantage of or a link to your blog.
Extend your Hours
If you are willing to spend a little extra time at the office, opening the doors to your practice an hour earlier or closing an hour later could lead to more patients in your week. Most doctors’ offices open around the same time that people have to be at work or in school. Making it easy for your patients to see you before or after their shift could serve as an easy way to separate you from the competition. If you want to take it a step further, test our alternating weekend hours and see if opening your doors when most of the public is free from work and school gives you an advantage.
Optimize your Schedule
The schedule is, arguably, one of the most important factors of your day when it comes to tracking patients. Every unfilled appointment slot represents a loss of revenue. Look at the schedule as a direct indication of how much money your practice stands to make in that day. Well-organized schedules should be equipped with a quick and easy look at all appointments for the day, a seamless view of what forms have been filled out by patients prior to their visit and a clear glimpse at what pockets of time can be filled. This will enable our staff to have a better understanding of what to expect from the day and easily fill slots, should a patient call in and want to be seen right away.
Sometimes, building your practice revenue takes a series of small, methodical steps that can yield steady, long term results.
