Why happy patients tell the best stories.
The new patient referral.
It's elusive. It's mysterious.
You don't always know when they will arrive or even where they come from.
You are glad they are here.
At the end of the visit you still wonder 'why' they chose you?
Name drop from a former patient? OMG! What did they say about me?
Or was a current patient? Google search?
Was it strictly because of location to their home or work that they picked you out of the half-dozen choices around the area?
At Concierge Medicine Today over the years, we’ve taken great interest into the how and why of patient decision-making. We took to our online polls and asked our Physician readers and prospective patient readers whom visit our web properties daily and asked them Why Do Patients Love or Leave A Concierge Medicine Physician?
We discovered something interesting.
We learned over the years that it was about the feeling a patient gets when they pick up the phone, make the appointment, talk to the staff, sit down for a conversation, meet with the Doctor and all the follow up afterwards.
It wasn’t just about the Doctor.
It was all the stuff around the Doctor as well.
Rarely was the price tag an issue that prevented the new patient from signing up with a concierge medicine practice.
We dug a little deeper.
When you ask people why they are leaving/have already left their current primary care of family medicine Doctor, for example, they told us three core reasons.
First, 'I felt like a number.'
Second, 'He/she spent less than 15-minutes with me on every visit.'
Third, 'The staff was rude.'
At CMT over the past three years, we asked Physicians, 'How many handwritten notes or handwritten thank you notes do you write to Patients per month?'
32% - "I write between 1-2 per month."
14% - "Between 3-6 per month."
21% - "Between 7-10 per month."
11% - "Between 11-20 per month."
6% - 150+ Thank You Notes/Handwritten Notes Per Month (or 4-5 notes, personally addressed per day).
16% - None. Zero.
One of the most important strategies (and possibly least expensive) that you can and should deploy in your medical practice that literally only costs you a few minutes a day and less than $0.65 to drop in the mail.
As one Physician we interviewed recently on our DocPreneur Leadership Podcast, "It cements the patient-physician relationship and creates positive word of mouth about you for free!"
I love that!
So even if a team member failed to ask the follow up question about how that new walk-in patient found your practice or an inquisitive question about why your current patient told a friend who told you about this place, you can create a positive word of mouth narrative about what's being said about you in your local community.
What Doctor do you know that doesn't want to create a sales force for free?!
If you meet 'em, I'd like to know ‘em. :)
Try writing one handwritten note or thank you note to patient per week. I'll even give you two weeks off for vacation. That means that in one year you will have changed the story or created a story worth people talking about in your local community.
Every team member from this point on should be equipped and at-the-ready when these new patients arrive for the first time. You should then equip your staff to ask 'How did you hear about us?' and then, sit back and listen to the real story about their personal Why behind the actual visit.
I think you'll be surprised at the results, as your peers in Concierge Medicine have been now who have implemented this strategy in their local communities.
A lot of medical administrative staff (and even some Physicians) are afraid to ask patients the awkward 'So how'd you hear about us?' because you don't want to scare them off by seeming too happy that they’re here.
I think we can 'Scale Kindness' in healthcare for the price of a stamp. It starts with you and me!
“My vision is to cultivate a personal Patient - doctor relationship amidst a bustling urban community where impersonal professional relationships are the norm," said Dr. Edward Espinosa of Buckhead Concierge Internal Medicine in Atlanta, GA. "Our practice strives to deliver quality medical care with an emphasis on evidence based medicine, open communication, easy accessibility, and a focus on customer service. These benefits can lead to an overall improvement in how healthcare is delivered and may ultimately improve outcomes.”
It's in these small and memorable moments when they open up a note address to them from their Doctor that you cement your relationship with them. Hopefully for a longtime.
So, one handwritten note per week is the goal.
In the meantime, stop putting so much pressure on yourself. You don't need to visit with every patient for 8-hours or write 50 thank you notes a month. You just need to start with one!
Now, go, get started!