"Your Greatest Asset Of Your
Marketing Genius Can Kill Your Practice"And....what is that? Ever
wonder why your patients chose you for their
health and medical care rather than another
doctor? Have you ever asked them?
It might be a very smart idea to do it.
Some physicians
exploit their surgical prowess to draw in
patients. Others get patients who need
their doctor to dictate to them in strong
fashion what they need to do. Well,
those approaches work well for some doctors to
recruit patients, but patients do not stay
long in those practices.
Most physicians
prefer to have their patients remain in their
practices for long periods of time where good
rapport is developed and consistently results
in more efficient and better medical care.
You already know that--but, is that really why
your patients keep coming back to you?
Surgical specialty physicians operate on a
patient and further services aren't usually
needed---they're cured. But, how the
patient is treated during that experience will
determine whether they return to that doctor
for the next operation they need---similarly,
they continue with your care because of how
they're treated.
One fact is
clear. You'll lose patients right and
left if your personality leaves a lot to be
desired. Marketers know that most
purchases are based on emotion, and later
rationalized by the left brain. The key
here is how you respond to your patients in an
emotional way. People buy the new car
often because they really like the salesman,
what he says, and how he says it.
Consider then
some of the emotional factors in relating to
patients that make or break you. Let's
call it your "patient" personality.
-
Greeting
your patients.
-
Discussing
medical treatment.
-
Respecting
a patient's choice.
-
Offering
options to their care.
-
Being
willing to adapt to their whims.
A. Greeting:
We're taught in medical school it's
important to avoid a bad attitude when
treating or consulting with a patient, no
matter what is going on in your thoughts or
your environment. Even if the patient
you are seeing belongs to one of your
associates. Right?
First
impressions are immediate in a patient's mind.
The second you walk into the exam room the
patient senses your body language, mental
preoccupation, and voice tone characteristics,
all of which tells them what you may not want
them to recognize. So, what's your
tactic for disemboweling yourself of that
invisible cloud you are carrying around with
you?
My suggestion is first---make
it a habit pattern of making eye to eye
contact with the patient immediately and
maintain that until you have finished your
verbal greeting.
-
Not making
eye to eye contact, immediately indicates
to the patient you are too busy to take
much time with them--your mind is
somewhere else--you don't want the patient
to present them with 10 medical questions,
thus isolating yourself from the patient
you lose trust, respect, and
professionalism.
-
I have a VA
doctor whom I see on occasion who walks
into the exam room head and eyes fixed to
the far wall, no greeting at all, spends 6
or 8 silent minutes on the computer
reading my medical information, then
speaks his first words to me without even
looking at me. I have the urge to
punch him every time.
Second---the
verbal words should be pleasant, oriented to
the patient not about yourself, and content
should be different, yet interesting.
Something like, "Good morning Mrs. Nelson, I
trust you are enjoying the sunshine today--and
even do a little shopping after your visit
here."
-
Recognition
is a communication everyone is looking
for. By far, the best way to do that is by
saying a patient's name. It opens up
your respect for them and allows for much
better history taking. Adding some
humor is often a good thing. The
reference to a positive aspect of our
environment (sunshine) gives the patient a
few seconds to enjoy the moment, reduce
the "white-coat" stress, and create a
positive mental image about the visit.
Third---make a
real effort to make a physical contact with
the patient, usually in the form of a
handshake, a light touch on the shoulder, or a
gentle grasp on the forearm.
-
Humans
understand the value of human touch,
whether it's a handshake or pat on the
back. Touch sends an unconscious
message to the patient that you have
concern for his or her welfare, and want
to know more.
B. Medical
treatment discussion: Your ability to
focus your attention on the exact information
the patient wants to know and understand is
critical. I'm sure every doctor has
heard a patient state that they went to a
doctor who never explained anything--just
handed them a prescription and walked out of
the room.
Nothing is more
appreciated by a patient than a doctor who
explains what he advises, pro and con, and why
it's important. And you can believe that
same patient tells 10 of her friends how
thorough you are. Even recommends you to their
friends. That's free marketing going on
if I ever saw it.
C. Respect
Patient's Choice: You don't have to agree
with it, but you have to respect the right of
a patient to refuse treatment, or modify your
advice to fit their wishes. In our
community, it was rare to find a physician who
would accept a Jehovah Witness patient as a
surgical patient. I did, and never
regretted that decision in 35 years.
Being clever
enough to persuade a patient to do as you
advise by using certain tactics that
accomplish the same thing and yet the patient
agrees with, is an outstanding boost to your
self-esteem. Sometimes it takes a bit of
humor.
I remember a patient who commonly told me she
never bothered to take all the medication as
prescribed by any doctor. I told her I'd
see her again in a week to see how much the
problem had increased.
Often, that
brought a chuckle from the patient and a
non-verbal compliance from the patient.
It doesn't always work but you can figure out
angles that patients will go for.
D. Offer
Options: Every patient enjoys choices of
treatment. It's a courtesy to present
options of therapy while being careful to look
for how the patient responds to
each---especially when you explain the pro and
cons of each method of treatment.
When only one option for treatment is offered
by the doctor, and may be the best one in your
opinion and experience, the patient tends to
believe you aren't keeping up with newer
medicine
and treatments.
Being
dictatorial towards the 2009 kind of patients
is a big mistake. If you treat older
geriatric patients, who are used to the old
times when patients were dumb and doctors were
trusted to dictate therapy without being
questioned, you may get by with
the tactic.
E. Adapt to
a patient's whims: It doesn't mean you let
the patient have full control of their care or
tell you how they insist on being treated
medically. The patient may have
something going on behind the curtains you
don't know about. Responding to the
patient in a suggestive manner so as not to
corner them, will permit you leeway in their
treatment.
You may believe
that it's logical and prudent to remove the
patient's appendix while you are in the
abdomen doing benign surgery on other organ
systems. When a patient refuses that
procedure, how would you respond? They
just want to keep that "wormy little dangler"
for some reason or another that you can never
understand. Your decision to agree to
leave it alone creates trust and a patient who
will stay with you a long time.
Summary: Every single one of these factors
generates patients who go about town bragging
about you, recommending your practice to
everyone they meet, and definitely increases
patient flow into your practice, let alone
increasing practice income. This free
marketing strategy is profoundly profitable to
you in the long haul. If you already
have way too many patients and want less of
them, then it's time to start catering to a
different group
of patients.
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"Medical Practice Marketing News"