Creating a great patient experience starts with effective communication, often starting before the visit and continuing long after.
Maintaining communication with your patients between visits is a vital aspect of keeping them engaged with your practice and building loyalty. In a technology-driven world, you must stay competitive and actively provide a great patient experience, as well as excellent patient care. These effective ways of finding time to communicate with your patients can help you keep them returning to your practice.
Communicating better with your patients is worth it for your practice
To build connections and increase patient loyalty to your practice, communicating with your patients between visits is key to success. Take communication with your patients to the next level by following these ways to establish better communication with them.
Scheduling Appointments
It’s not uncommon for healthcare providers to waste a lot of time calling patients to schedule follow-up consultations. Patients may not answer or return the calls, making phone calls rather time-consuming without delivering results. You can increase patient consultations with one simple change — the way you communicate with them. Instead of dozens of unanswered phone calls, communicate better through text messaging.
With 2-way text messaging, you can significantly increase patient response, and the great thing about this feature is that it can save you time because you can automate the process. With Curogram’s patient communication software, patients can respond to your text message reminders when it’s convenient for them. Sometimes, changing your patient communication method can bring a bigger impact in delivering great care; it’s not just about timing.
Sending Appointment Reminders
Communicating with your patients before their appointment is another perfect time to connect with them. Like in any organization, first impressions are very important in healthcare. Make a lasting good impression on your new patients before their consultation even begins. Since many patients are busy with work and often miss appointments due to frequent changes in their schedules, increasing no-show rates at your practice.
An easy solution to this problem is to send your patients a friendly appointment reminder. Patients might overlook the appointment they scheduled a couple of weeks in advance. Sending a reminder two or three days in advance gives them a chance to reschedule if they have a work commitment or personal matter.
Using pre-appointment reminders helps you properly plan your schedule with accuracy, such as filling open slots in your calendar to arrange your schedule more effectively.
Sending Post-Consultation Follow-Up
Communication doesn’t have to end right after a patient consultation. Patients may forget treatment information right after they visit with you, so find time to communicate with them after the appointment and ask if they need further clarification about their health information or medications.
With regular follow-ups to patients, you can properly educate them about their diagnosis, treatment instructions, and other health information they might have missed during the appointment.
Providing time for a post-consultation follow-up allows you to give your patients additional information that is relevant to their health. It also encourages a strong provider-patient relationship by creating value for your patients in having you as their healthcare provider, further building a great patient experience.
Using a Friendly Tone
Establishing an amiable tone is an effective strategy you can apply when finding time to communicate with patients through any means. When you send your patients a text message reminder, make sure that your message is friendly and has the tone your practice uses in-office or on the phone. That way, you are building a trusting relationship with your patients while establishing credibility as well. Not only can text messaging deliver messages quickly, but using a consistent, friendly tone in messages can create a cohesive feeling for your patients. They know that regardless of how they communicate with your office, they receive the same level of service.
If you write the text message similar to how you answer calls and address patients, it is a very easy process as well.
Automating the process
By following these simple ways to find time to communicate with patients, you can build successful patient relationships. Effectively communicating with them between visits increases patient loyalty toward your practice. Automate the patient communication process with Curogram and save time.
Aside from communicating with patients before or after the consultation, one of the best methods you can do to free up more time in your practice is to automate your patient communication system. Curogram is a HIPAA-compliant patient communication software that can automate surveys and rating requests, assist in medical billing, and send patient recall messages efficiently and securely.
With these completed tasks automatically done thanks to Curogram’s easy-to-use software, you have more time to connect with your patients before or after their appointments.
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