As an optometrist or eyecare professional, one of your biggest concerns is to guarantee your patients have a positive patient experience. Dissatisfied patients are more likely to leave, and when they do, they take a piece of revenue with them. While churn is likely to happen in the eyecare industry, if you’re experiencing a high churn rate it may cripple your growth.
To continue growing in your eyecare practice, it’s important to identify and address common patient pain points. We listed a few of these common pain points below and how to resolve them so patient retention doesn’t have a negative impact on your eyecare practice’s top or bottom line.
3 Reasons Patients Aren't Satisfied With Your Eyecare Practice
Long wait times
According to this study by Fierce Healthcare, patient wait times have a direct correlation between how long a patient had to wait and the star rating of the healthcare facility. Furthermore, “long patient wait times affect not just the perception of care but the actual care that patients receive. In fact, up to 30% of patients have left a physician’s office before being seen because of the wait time. 20% would consider changing providers over long waits.”
One way to resolve long wait times is with patient portal software. A patient portal helps the pre-exam portion of the appointment go quicker and it also helps make your patients feel like they are prepared for their exam. This, combined with clear appointment reminders and management in your office with help reduce long wait times and increase patient satisfaction.
Education
One of the common ways patients can become dissatisfied with your service is through lack of knowledge. Imagine receiving a diagnosis about something you don’t understand, and therefore you don’t know what steps you should take as a patient. This can leave patients frustrated, confused, and irritated by your service.
A great way to solve this is by giving them access to digital patient education videos that will help explain a complicated diagnosis. Being able to share those materials with the patients directly through a secure patient portal will allow them to review the video at a later date or with concerned family members. By giving long-term access to patient education materials based on treatment codes, best practices, and diagnosis, you can keep patients engaged and satisfied with your practice.
Lack of personalized service
Patients need personalized service to feel appreciated and understood on a personal level. They want to be seen as an individual with unique needs, rather than just another patient that walks through your door. While personalization should happen face to face, you can also provide a personalized service through well-written emails, text messages, letters, and more.
A lot of time passes between appointments. By regularly connecting with a patient, you can stay top-of-mind and show that you’re interested in the patient’s well-being. Using a patient recall solution, you can send personalized messages to your patients to help them stay connected and remind them of upcoming exams.
Download our patient survey kits to learn more ways to achieve the best patient experience:
