How many patients walk through your medical care center daily? 10, a dozen, 20, or close to a hundred? Whatever the number is, I can bet you aren’t satisfied with it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. But you’re right not to be satisfied with your medical practice profitability.
If I ran a medical establishment, too, I would be disappointed if I didn’t turn in enough sales and profits. So, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry things haven’t panned out the way you expected. That said, here are some quick fixes to your medical practice profitability problem.
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Offer additional extras
You can raise the profitability of your medical center by giving more than your primary service.
For example, instead of delivering only your primary medical service to patients, you can incorporate additional off-the-job services like free consultations, free laboratory services, free radiology/X-ray services, pharmaceutical bonuses, free testing, and diagnostic services, etc.
By doing this, current customers will tell others about you while finding ways to tap into the newer opportunities themselves.
All in all, you will have opened new channels for sales and profit-making.
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Expand your online presence
In order to increase the profitability of your medical practice, you can find ways to take your practice online. This can be in the form of Facebook campaigns, Instagramming, blogging, local SEO, and other forms of digital marketing.
The idea here is to announce your medical practice to the world. If done right, you’ll have clients flocking to your office from far and wide.
Let’s take local SEO, for example. If done right, your medical practice, along with its address, will be displayed to internet users every time they search for anything relating to your profession.
Look at this example below. I searched for “best dental service in Ohio,” and look what I found:
Google showed me the names of dentists in that region who had done local SEO for their dental practice business. You, too, can do the same for your business in your area. All you have to do is click here.
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Offer a wide variety of medical services
This is quite similar to the first idea, but it’s slightly different in that you’re adding entirely new medical services to your establishment.
For example, if your hospital only provided hospitalization services for common sicknesses, you can add a section that handles dental services or eye care.
By and large, try and see if you can expand your current service offerings. Just make sure there’s a connection between your old service and the new ones you’re looking to add.
Of course, you will need to hire the right specialist for the service you’re adding, which would cost you money. But, you can also avail online training courses for yourself or for your staff. This website offers mammography training courses and you can find more websites that cater to other specific training.
However, if you’re sure that such medical services are in demand in the area where you’re situated, it might be a good move in the end.
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For example, if you’re situated in an area that has a rich history of producing dental patients, it might be a good idea to hire and bringing in a specialist dentist even if your current establishment only dealt with general hospitalization.
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Find a way to improve appointments
No-shows and late cancels are two of the biggest factors responsible for medical practices losing tens of thousands of dollars every year.
You know that better than anyone.
But with office obligations, family demands, and traffic concerns breathing down patients’ necks every day, it’s not surprising to see many patients canceling or postponing their medical appointments.
To dissuade patients from canceling and postponing appointments, your medical practice can adopt little tricks like:
- At-home service consultations
- Virtual visits
- Reminder Calls
- Setting up a waitlist
- Offering to reschedule no-shows at no cost at all.
- Enabling Extra Reminders
- Have a written cancellation Policy.
Offer after-hours virtual visits
With after-hour services, you can fit more appointments into a day, compete with nearby practices that are only open 9-5 pm, and keep patients in your practice with convenient scheduling options.
This can also be a great way to develop better personal relationships with patients.
Of course, if you’re like most doctors, you’re probably looking for a little more work-life balance and don’t want to work after-hours. Luckily, there’s the option of holding after-hours services from home.
You could give after-hours checkups to patients through phone calls, video chats, email, etc. You could also replace those regular after-hours urgent patient calls with reimbursable video visits.
By and large, with this change, you could learn how to increase patients in your clinic and recapture lost revenue from uncompensated time.
Interesting Related Article: “Is Outsourcing Medical Billing a Profitable Decision?“