For medical students and doctors who are just starting out, practicing medicine in today’s day and age may seem challenging and a bit competitive.
They may experience that patients do visit them but do not seem to return. In other words, apart from other challenges at the beginner level, they may also encounter that even after successful treatment of their patients, they still don’t revisit their clinics.
So, why are doctors unable to retain their patients?
In order to decode that, we must get into the psychology of an Indian patient.
When a patient enters a doctor’s clinic, they seek an accurate diagnosis as well as affordable treatment.
However, what sets the relationship between you and your patient apart is ‘reliability.’
Once your patients start trusting in your abilities, you will begin entertaining long queues of people in a day, and most of them will come to you again and again.
But, how do you get there?
Here are the 10 most essential things a doctor needs to do to retain their patients:-
Flexibility in Attitude: At an average doctor’s clinic, a significant chunk of patients come from rural India. Doctors who are flexible in changing their attitude to be more understandable to the rural people, especially those who are illiterate and lack awareness, generally experience a better influx of patients.
Understanding Behaviour: A doctor examines a large age group of people, and it is possible that some of them might not be able to clearly explain their ailments to the doctor. Thus, a doctor must be able to understand their problem, which can be achieved by good communication skills and experience.
Early Diagnosis: If a doctor can understand their patient’s problem and cure them with an early and accurate diagnosis, the doctor earns their patients’ trust, which is one of the most valued assets of a medical professional.
Availability: A patient might be satisfied with your prescriptions and trust your diagnosis, but their return depends upon whether you are readily available at their disposal or not. If a patient visits your clinic and is unable to get examined by you on multiple occasions, there is a chance that they won’t come again.Your available hours play a crucial role in defining your success in the field. Having an online presence and making your calendar available to your patients for easy scheduling is a great way to earn their trust back. Check out how a calendar service should work here: https://bit.ly/3r9RF0o
Expertise: In the medical field, your aptitude in the subject matters the most. Whether you are a Gynecologist, a Psychiatrist, an Ophthalmologist, or a Physician, it is your expertise that sets you apart and eventually makes you known among the public.If a patient leaves your clinic impressed by your professional conduct, there’s a chance they will come to you again. Promoting your expertise, specializations and services by displaying them on your own website is a demonstrated way of building reputation amongst your patients. Visit https://bit.ly/3G8smQF to learn more about how to do it.
Accessibility: There is always one or two doctors who everyone knows due to their accessibility in a city. This quality of being easily accessible has a reassuring effect on patients, and such doctors also experience large crowds at their clinics.
Affordability: If you want to retain your patients, you must stick to affordable appointment fees. This encourages patients to return to the clinic as your services suit their health as well as their pockets.
Medicine Attainability: Doctors know that most people have little to no knowledge about pharmaceutical medicines and their dosages. Also, patients usually believe doctors extract commissioned money from them by prescribing expensive, hard-to-get medications. Hence, it is better to prescribe moderately priced, attainable medicines to them. This will encourage them to come to you whenever they need to.
Affable Staff: The staff at a doctor’s clinic plays a significant role in maintaining the goodwill of the place. If the staff is bad-mouthed and uncompassionate, no patient would like to revisit your clinic. Thus, it is advised to choose the staff wisely.
Word of Mouth: Lastly, a doctors’ ultimate success in retaining patients is achieved by word-of-mouth. Once patients are satisfied with your treatment, they advise their relatives and close ones to visit you. This leads to increased goodwill, reliability, and confidence among people. In today’s digital age getting online referrals via a patient app can work wonders in practice growth. For details refer to link: https://bit.ly/3KQpnQu
Becoming a doctor is hard but being the patient’s go-to doctor is harder.
However, professional conduct, understanding attitude, and years of experience can make you the successful doctor you wish to be one day!
