Healthy Options — Do Your Patients Know Everything Your Medical Practice Does?
To the average patient, medical information and healthcare can be a strange place. It seems locked behind an arcane door of unpronounceable medications, conditions with Latin or Greek names, and baffling procedures. It doesn’t help that the only time most people interact with their doctor is when they’re sick.
We know that’s a problem — Marketing your practice isn’t easy. However, we’ve never shied away from a challenge (except for that pumpkin pie eating competition that one time), so we’ve got some pretty good ideas. It all comes down to a few things:
- Making your patients aware of everything you do.
- Keeping them healthy in addition to curing illnesses.
- Giving them more options in their healthcare and medical choices.
How does that look in (medical) practice? Sharing your full range of services[/x_custom_headline][cs_text]It’s important to move people’s perceptions away from your practice just being somewhere they can go when they’re sick, and instead focus on how it can help them stay well. That starts by giving your patients an easy-to-understand list of services and how they can benefit their health. For example:
- Nutrition advice — Tips on eating well to live a healthier life and feel better.
- Exercise and fitness — Advice on recommended classes, programs, and routines for people of all abilities and age groups.
- Smoking cessation — Services you provide to help people quit smoking.
- Pre- and post-natal services — Helping mothers-to-be through pregnancy and after
- Screenings and prevention — Details of the various diagnostic and screenings tests you can do to reassure patients or detect early signs of a problem.
- Any other services — Referrals to alternative holistic options such as life coaching to focus on mindfulness, therapy, acupuncture and more.
Once you’ve collected together all of the great things you do, you need to do two things:
- Centralize all the information in one place — We’d recommend your website, and in various leaflets you can hand out at the practice.
- Tell your patients about the services — This could be through posters in your practice, via email, through a letter to their home address, or other personal channels.
The main purpose of this is to wow your patients and create trust with them — And that’s vital when it comes to healthcare. What specialized treatments do you provide? Another area to think about is any specialties your practice has, Review the skills, background, and experience of your staff and check you’re representing the various treatments you offer. Examples include:
- Addiction treatment — Helping people get over alcohol, drug, or other types of addictions.
- Counselling — Recommendations on good psychotherapists and counselors for helping people deal with mental and emotional issues.
- Options for medium- and long-term treatments — Providing choices and options for longer-term care of persistent conditions.
With these types of services, it’s best to take a case-by-case approach.
Ultimately, it’s about putting choice and information in the hands of your patients. Once they’re properly informed, they can make better choices about their health and discuss them with you. This all helps to build better relationships with your patients that you can use to enhance their lives and the services you provide.