8 Proven Tips on Increasing Your Patient Volume

More patients mean more experience, more revenue, and more success. However, many healthcare providers struggle to find new patients. 

During the new normal, you might be facing the same challenge. You’ve probably tried traditional methods but never seem to get anywhere. 

2020 was marked by profound changes in outpatient care due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of healthcare practices began deferring elective visits, modifying their practices to make in-person visits safe. 

Some of the volume decline was due to state restrictions on elective care early in the pandemic, but  many patients avoided medical care because of concerns about contracting the coronavirus.

Given all these factors, how can you increase your patient volume? Here are 8 proven tips that can help your medical practice.

1. Identify Your High-Risk Patients

Assessing these patients can help you know how to prioritize your workload, identify the areas of your practice that need improvement, and identify potential marketing opportunities for new patients.

A high-risk patient is someone with a chronic condition or illness who requires regular treatment and monitoring. Patients who have a high number of chronic conditions like diabetes and heart diseases are at a higher risk for hospitalization and emergency care. 

There are several ways a practice can identify their high-risk patients, including the use of predictive analytics tools. These tools can identify demographics and diagnoses that correlate with the riskiest population of patients. 

Practices should also keep track of their data through regular audits or checklists so they can find patterns in which demographics correlate with higher risk populations.

If you’ve identified this type of patient in your practice, it’s important to understand what their needs are. You can provide them with more personalized care and discuss preventative measures they could take in the future.

2. Schedule Reminders to Reduce Patient No-Shows 

Patient no-shows often result in lost revenue, wasted prep work, and missed treatment. 

It isn't uncommon for people to forget appointments every now and then.

Occasionally, a scheduling conflict arises because they have mismanaged their time. This can be solved by providing patients with automated alerts.

Automated System

The first step is to find out who your no-shows are. See if there’s a pattern.

Then, figure out how many no-shows happen on average every day. Next, set up an automated appointment booking system for all your patients so they can better prepare and increase the likelihood of confirming their appointment. 

Call

You can also implement a system requiring patients to call ahead if they cannot make it to their appointment. This will give them ample time to reschedule. This can also prevent people from showing up despite not having appointments, possibly causing a long wait for those who do.

Text

Setting up text alerts is a great way to remind patients of their appointment. It's instantaneous and most people have their phones with them throughout the day. 

Email

Email is another great way to reach out to patients. They don't require immediate attention like text messages, so you have more time to explain what needs to happen at the appointment.

Strict Policy

A policy against no-shows is also useful. Patients are less likely to miss an appointment when they know there will be a charge.

3. Don’t Ignore Digital Marketing

The old ways of acquiring patients won’t cut it anymore. You need to engage with consumers on their terms and have a robust digital presence.

Modern healthcare practitioners know that using digital marketing effectively can significantly increase their clinic's patient base. 

Consider the following:

• Stay in contact with your patients via email newsletter
• Make your website load faster
• Optimize your website for SEO
• Make your website mobile friendly
• Set up Google My Business
• Build an active social media community 

Looking at the list above, it can seem overwhelming and confusing to know where to begin. You don’t have to do everything at once, or even do them all yourself. Partner with a qualified medical marketing team if it's within your budget.

4. Take Advantage of Cloud Hosting Solutions

The cloud centralizes all your files and applications, enhancing collaboration among medical providers. Your team can easily share everything they need to complete their work, making it significantly faster for them to respond to patients’ needs.

Unlike their conventional on-premises counterparts, cloud hosting gives you the flexibility to either increase or decrease storage based on your workload and how many patients you have. It can meet your needs during peak seasons without spending time and money on hardware or software upgrades. 

For example, you may have a spike in patient visits during flu season. Your HIPAA-compliant cloud hosting provider can quickly increase your data storage space. Once the peak season ends, you can simply scale down.

5. Invest in Seamless Communications 

Your clinic needs a seamless cloud-based communication system to deliver safe and efficient telehealth services. 

Investing in a unified healthcare business solution can help you lower expenses, improve staff productivity, and provide patients with the care they need.

Any kind of business relies on communications to be successful, so it's crucial to get a system that's fast, offers quality communication, and integrates well with your existing tools.

Among the capabilities to look for are:

• Make or receive calls from your deskphone, computer, and mobile phone.
• Deliver voicemails to your email.
• Convert voicemails to text.
• Create HIPAA-compliant virtual meetings.

You can use it like a virtual receptionist, no matter where you are in the world. All you need is an internet connection. Your patients will be able to reach you on your regular number, even if you’ve turned off your desk phone. 

With a smooth and effective communication system, you’ll have more satisfied patients and attract more new ones.

6. Optimize for Telemedicine 

Telemedicine eliminates the need for physical presence while providing medical care. As we continue to adapt to the new normal, access to medical treatment is shifting as more patients prefer this method of getting care.

Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, the use of telemedicine was already on the rise. Now it has increased by many folds.

A 2020 report from the American Hospital Association estimates that up to $250 billion of the current U.S. healthcare budget could be shifted to virtual or near-virtual care due to an increase in telehealth visits.

Post-pandemic, the role of telehealth in providing care will remain important, and virtual visits will make up an increasing percentage of provider revenues. 

Meditab's Televisit, a HIPAA-compliant telemedicine solution, is ideal for practices that are considering telemedicine or wishing to switch platforms.

7. Make Use of a Robust and Customizable EHR

A robust and fully customizable EHR like IMS can be used to provide patient education, address concerns and requests, schedule/change appointments, and many more. 

Patient portals, available on capable EHRs, facilitate communication between physicians and patients. This keeps patients engaged and involved in their care. With 24/7 secure access to their clinical information, your patients can remain connected and informed at any time, while you save time and money.

Patients can also enter much of their own demographic data on the patient portal before they arrive at the physician's office, such as health insurance information, medical, family, and social histories, and other pertinent information. This eliminates the hassle of waiting times for patients.

If you integrate your EHR with your cloud phone system, you can share information more efficiently and accurately, resulting in better patient care while saving time and effort.

When patients feel like your practice is responsive to their needs, they will keep coming back.

8. Partner with Healthcare IT Experts

These days, it’s not uncommon for doctors to outsource their IT needs to a specialized healthcare IT company. This is especially true if they have limited resources or lack the technical skills needed for this field.

People might be reluctant to switch to your practice because they are at ease with their current doctor. The best way to get more patients is by partnering with an IT company that will make sure that your clinic is modernized and offers the latest technology that your competitors cannot.

Healthcare IT experts take care of the day-to-day maintenance. This way, you can focus on your patients and provide them with the best care possible without having to worry about technology issues.

ER Tech Pros Can Help You Increase Patient Volume

Need some help figuring out where to begin? Let us assist you.

While low patient volume is not a new challenge, the pandemic has forced healthcare systems to adapt to new patient needs and fluctuating demand.

As your patient volume rebounds and grows even more, your technology infrastructure must be able to cope with peaks and handle increased complexity without crashing, overloading, or other unexpected problems.

Your clinic relies on technology for many of your clinical tasks so it's important to optimize your IT for the post-pandemic times. Partnering with a managed IT and cloud service provider like ER Tech Pros will help you handle healthcare challenges and increase patient volume.