One of the biggest challenges for clinics specializing in rehabilitation therapy is patient retention. Far too often, patients are deciding to stop scheduling appointments despite the fact that their treatment plan hasn’t been fulfilled, and their recovery is incomplete. In this article, we’ll discuss several tactics that you can incorporate in your patient retention strategies, and minimize fall-off.

 

Confirm appointments in advance. This might seem like a no-brainer, but a lot of managers out there are not instructing their front desk staff to confirm appointments beforehand. This can be achieved a number of ways. In some cases, it isn’t even necessary to have someone do it manually.

 

Depending on your choice of EMR software, you have the ability to send automated appointment reminders by way of email, text, or even phone call. For example, one of our partners, ReminderCall, specializes in this.

 

Don’t let your patients leave your clinic before they book their next appointment. This is a good habit for your providers and your treatment staff to create. Whether it’s your front desk staff or your treatment staff who are ensuring that they’ve been entered in your schedule, patients shouldn’t leave your clinic without a new appointment.

 

Schedule follow up calls after their appointments. Just because the patient has left your facility, that does not mean the treatment is over.  You might’ve sent them off with a home exercise program, so it’ll be good to remain engaged with them and ensure they’re staying true to their regimen. Little things like a follow up call let the patient know that you’re invested in the success of their recovery.

 

Send surveys to your patients and get their feedback. Like follow up calls, sending surveys allow you to see whether or not your treatment is having a positive impact on the patient’s wellbeing. Surveys also create another avenue for patients to express parts of their experience that they liked, and the things that they didn’t. Surveys give you an opportunity to re-examine your current strategy and change the things that just aren’t working.

 

In sum, creating patient retention strategies is all about fostering a positive relationship with your patients. The individual tactics above might help you reach that end, but the thing that ties them all together is friendly service and tangible results.

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