For business professionals who are also medical professionals, connecting with their target demographic, aka their patients, requires a gentler hand than for most business professionals. But for doctors or other medical providers who want to have a successful medical practice, it’s not just all about marketing your practice and getting more patients. Your patients have to like and trust you, and this is a business issue that many other professionals don’t have to handle on such an intimate basis.
For this reason, it’s vital that medical professionals know just what they can do to improve their ability to connect with their patients in order to have greater professional success. To help with this, here are three problems that many medical professionals have that result in a less than satisfactory business for their medical practice.
Communication Barriers
If you as a medical professional aren’t able to effectively communicate with your patient, you’re not building the type of professional rapport you need to have a successful medical practice. While this is one aspect of medicine that is difficult for many doctors to cope with, there are a few things you can do to ensure you’re communicating with your patients as effectively as possible.
According to Timothy D. Gillian, M.D., and Mikkael A. Sekeres, M.D., contributors to the New York Times, simply encouraging your patients to “go on” when speaking to you about their problems or concerns is a great way to open up lines of communication that will satisfy your patient. If there are other forms of communication barriers, such as foreign languages, you should also do everything in your power to bring in an interpreter for your patient’s comfortability.
Lack of Education for the Patient
Your patients will feel more trust toward you and will be more inclined to help your medical practice grow and succeed if they feel you’re committed to properly educating them with regards to their health treatments and diagnoses. To ensure your patients are well educated, make it a priority to explain everything to them clearly and to answer any of their questions in language they can understand, as many sources like Ortho Info tell patients to continue asking questions until they fully understand what’s being done for their health care. You may also try preemptively addressing anticipated questions to show your patient you value their educated consent.
Strained Doctor Schedules
Many physicians have such strained schedules that it can be difficult to connect with your patients simply due to lack of time. However, Allen Frances, a contributor to the Huffington Post, shares that this very easily negatively impacts the doctor when the patient feels they aren’t being heard or listened to as a result of a busy doctor. To combat against this, consider cutting out a few appointment times from your day to take the few minutes necessary to make a patient feel like you care about them and their well being.
What customer service is to traditional business people, connecting with patients is to medical professionals. To have the most successful medical practice possible, it’s imperative for physicians to break down anything hindering their ability to connect with their patients in order to create more satisfaction and have a larger chance for a more profitable office. Consider using the tips mentioned above to help get you there today.
Originally posted on December 23, 2015 @ 9:16 pm
