2021 Resolutions for Your Practice

This year’s been challenging for most, both personally and professionally. COVID-19 has likely thrown a lot of your 2020 goals through a loop operationally, structurally and financially. Unfortunately, it appears many of COVID-19’s effects will bleed into 2021 as well. But that shouldn’t stop you from planning your 2021 resolutions for your practice.

Like with any other year, regardless of what challenges you’re facing, it’s important to set your practice resolutions for the New Year, which will essentially turn into your expanded, detailed goals. There are many different areas of your practice you may want to focus on in 2021 depending on your needs, whether it’s operational improvements, new patient generation, team building, etc. Here are a few areas to consider:

Advance Your Referrals

Your marketing, social and PR activities will continue to help you reach new patients and stay up to date with current patients. And reviews and word-of-mouth testimonials from current patients will still play a role in new patient growth. But another big part of that is your doctor referral network. Do you have a network in place, and even if you do, are there gaps you can fill in this upcoming year?

• Primary care providers are likely one of your largest sources of referrals. As general doctors, they’re likely to come across a skin issue they’re not equipped to handle and refer the patient out to a dermatologist. But you don’t have to rely solely on general practitioners. Any doctor in any medical field may potentially be a referral source.
• Find out what other doctors are nearby in your community and take steps to introduce yourself if you haven’t. Building these relationships can have a great impact on your number of referrals.
• There’s a good chance you’re already using social media to market your practice to potential patients, but are you using it to connect with potential referral sources? Other doctors and practices in your community are most likely on Facebook, Instagram, etc., so use these as connection channels too. LinkedIn is even more appropriate for making professional connections and has specialty groups and forums for medical professionals.

Connect with Patients Further

You may build great relationships with your patients during their appointments, but you can also continue fostering those relationships in other ways. This is especially true nowadays with advanced communication technology, which makes it easy to reach patients in a variety of ways. For example, use your social media to its full extent. Keep patients updated on what’s going on with the practice, announce important information (office closures, changes, etc.) and post educational information. This will help you build even more trust with patients (and show your personality and expertise to possible patients). In addition, you can provide an online portal for patients via your website that gives them quicker access to their records. Patients want convenience.

Measure Your Marketing

The majority of your marketing efforts will cost money. It’s important to have an effective plan for measuring results, so you can see your ROI. This will also help you continue what’s working well and cut what’s not having the desired effect.

• Set up the necessary technology to track results. For example, Google Analytics, call tracking and conversion tracking.
• Know your key performance indicators (KPIs). Depending on your marketing goals, these can be website visits, leads, new patients, etc.
• Establish a regular routine for reporting, whether it’s monthly, quarterly, etc.

Use Satisfaction Surveys

Are you currently using surveys to measure patients satisfaction for new and regular patients? These can give you a better understanding of what areas you can focus on improving in 2021. This will also reaffirm to patients that you care about what they think and are committed to creating the best experiences for them.

Need help with your 2021 practice resolutions? We’re always a phone call or click away to help. Schedule a consultation with one of our practice management experts today!