Troubleshooting Patient Acquisition

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As a busy medical professional, you are likely well aware of the fact that patient acquisition is key to the success of your practice. However, if there is a problem with patient acquisition, it can often be difficult to pinpoint where exactly the problem originates. Fortunately, troubleshooting patient acquisition is a simple task and one that, when done properly, can improve the patient lifecycle in your practice while eliminating wasted time and money.  
"When troubleshooting patient acquisition, the term to remember is integration."

When troubleshooting patient acquisition, the term to remember is integration. Patient acquisition is a function of the integration of three different parts of your business, which are:

  • Marketing
  • Front Desk
  • Patient Acquisition

These three systems in your office are interdependent. As a result of their interdependent nature, integration is what weaves all three together to paint a larger picture of what is taking place in your office. Conversion rates are a reliable way to better understand how each part of your business contributes to the whole. Without an understanding of conversion rates, you will experience financial loss in your process.  

Marketing + Front Desk

When considering the integration between the marketing and the front desk, be sure to understand your lead-to-schedule rate. Consider this: for every hundred phone calls or emails, how many are scheduling an appointment? Take a look at whether these numbers are going up or down and determine how this is impacting your revenue.

In addition, consider the marketing-to-attendance rate. Of those who scheduled an appointment, how many attended as expected? Analyzing these rates can provide a solid foundation for a high-level overview of what’s working—and more importantly, what isn’t.

Front Desk + Acquisition

Next, take a look at the attendance-to-acquisition rate. Of those who attended, how many did you acquire as a patient for your services? This relates back to the success of the front desk, which also links back to the success of your marketing.

All three of these steps are integrated in such a way that makes it imperative to evaluate conversion rates at each phase of the process. When you can see with clarity the weaker link in your practice, you can quickly adjust your focus to bring back a state of balance that supports your team in decreasing financial loss while growing and scaling your services.