It has been said that change is the only constant. History argues that it’s both change and rising prices. The healthcare industry is not immune to either of these and it makes it difficult for a medical business to rest on its laurels. However, it also presents plenty of opportunities to set yourself ahead of and apart from your competition.
If you want to compete, let alone succeed, you need to evolve. The list below represents some important rules in keeping your practice firmly established as “the gold standard” in meeting your clients’ needs.
Tips to Edge Out Your Health Practice’s Competition
- Pay Attention to The Constant Changes In Marketing
There was a time when visibility meant making sure you were in the yellow pages. In today’s marketing game SEO & content marketing are King. But guess what? SEO still takes into account that yellow pages registration, so it’s not as simple as “out with the old…in with the new”, you just need to make sure you have visibility in the places where people are actually looking.
Failure to utilize social media can mean the difference between a trusted medical provider and an empty waiting room. In a market where nearly 72% of Americans are researching their health care online, not putting yourself out there looks like hiding.
All this aside, an SEO-optimized website and killer social media game doesn’t get you off the hook with traditional marketing either. More traditional direct marketing is still able to engage older clients as well as being less flooded than the internet can be. The truth is you need to pay attention to your market and react accordingly when promoting your medical business.
- Understand Modern Communication Expectations
One of the greatest gifts the internet has given the medical field is making it easier for patients to self-serve parts of their health journey. It is a given now that patients are able to track their records online via provider websites. Web portals as well as email & SMS messaging have taken away excuses for missed appointments; add to this list different payment options as well as telehealth options becoming increasingly available. These all encourage better communication between health care professionals & patients. Better communication means better service and happier patients
- Keep Current With Industry Standard Technologies
Imagine trying to do business today with nothing newer than a fax machine. How long do you think you’d be able to keep your doors open? Technology has integrated more and more into the lives of modern patients and with it, the expectations of service providers have changed as well. Technologies to expedite everything from booking & registration to health tracking and record keeping all exist. Failure to keep up with these expectations means patients going shopping.
- Expand The Services You Provide
There are plenty of ways to expand the services you offer today, thanks to technology. Should every appointment require a visit? Is it valuable to you or the customer to come in to say everything is all good? Would a telehealth visit work instead? Does it make sense to treat everyone who walks in the door the same? Do those sniffles need to risk spreading just to get a prescription? Should the broken wrist wait with the patient with the sniffles? Getting creative with your offerings can increase customer satisfaction while increasing efficiency at the same time.
- Maintain A Well Structured & Efficient Practice
A profitable company is a well-oiled machine, leaving no cash to slip through the cracks as a result of inefficiency or convoluted systems. Each employee from the bottom to the top needs to understand all aspects of their job and perform as a part of a greater whole.
When any person in the system fails to perform their job function correctly, or on time, it can burn out fellow employees and otherwise throw cash into the void. If you want to compete, do it right with clear objectives and time expectations for each employee as well as a greater understanding of each employee’s place in the grand scheme.
What These Tips Have In Common & What You Can Do
This is not an exhaustive list of the ways you can stay ahead of every trend, but there is a theme present: Pay attention. Use your understanding of the modern world to exceed the expectations of the healthcare system, now and into the future. If being an expert in all of these areas seems daunting, don’t be afraid to outsource. And, of course, consider Medical Billing Authority when looking to get the best guidance and solutions for how to take your medical billing efficiencies to the next level!