Each and every practice is at a different stage of maturity, and goals are going to vary depending on which stage your practice is in. Whether you are a brand new practice opening this year, or an established practice with a loyal patient base we hope this article gets your wheels turning about where your practice is now, and where you'd like your practice to go in the coming year.
What are Your Practice Goals for 2016?
Deliver across a New Marketing Channel
If you've been riding comfortable on your same marketing strategy for a while it might be time to revamp and take a look at how you could be doing it differently in 2016. The past few years have seen such a push towards social media and digital marketing, so maybe this year you should rethink some of the more traditional forms of marketing you may have been ignoring while you worked on building your online presence. A radio ad on a local station, a print ad in a local newspaper, or maybe direct mailers to your patients are all examples of strategies you may not have tried in a while.
Create a New Patient Recall Strategy
If you aren't already using an automated patient recall and reminder solution, this is the year to get on board. If you are already taking advantage of the benefits of automated recall, we want you to think about new ways you can be using recall to bring in patients. Are there different promotions you can offer during different seasons or holidays that will be more enticing than the traiditional message of, "It's been 1 year since we've seen you, come visit us!"
Improve on 2015's New Patient Growth
We've preached about how important it is to monitor benchmarks in your practice. This year we want you to focus on improving upon one important 2015 benchmark - new patient growth.
You can calculate your 2015 new patient growth by taking the number of patients you had in 2015 and subtracting the number of patients you had in 2014. Once you have that number, divide it by the total number of patients in 2014 and multiply by 100. A good goal for new patient growth is something between 8-10%. Start planning now for ways that you can beat this number by the end of 2016.
Decrease Total Patient Flow Time
Getting patients through their exam faster should always be a priority in your practice. As someone who is so involved in the workflow it can be hard to take a critical look at where you can make improvements to speed up appointment time. We have an eBook all about improving workflow time that you can download. It includes worksheets to help you evaluate your current workflow and will hopefully lead to new insights on where you can increase efficiency through the entire office.
Want to improve on more benchmarks in your practice? Download this eBook!
