First and foremost we must deliver a service and/or products which are needed and/or wanted by someone. This means we must be of help to someone. In the medical field this means we must make people healthy and more importantly we must keep people from getting sick in the first place.

We must realize that people come to us, the experts, for expert advice and that we cannot make our decisions based on what insurance companies cover or do not cover. Insurance companies unfortunately have made themselves “self proclaimed health experts”. Any non-medical, non-licensed man on the street would go to jail were they to attempt to say what treatment is needed or not needed for a particular patient.  But the insurance companies get away with it by hiring their own medical doctors – who of course have lost all their integrity by being nothing more than hired guns for the insurance companies.

We must realize that if we do not perform all the necessary and possible tests and treatments, we can and will be sued for medical negligence. However, if we do tests and treatments which we feel are needed because they could help to prevent future illnesses, we also might be attacked for “overreaching”.  But our first priority is to help the patient to stay healthy, and to get them well if they are already sick.

Perhaps it should also be mentioned that providing this valuable service does not exclude us from being allowed to make a profit because we do also want to get paid for our services and for those products which will accomplish that.

How do we achieve our primary goal and also get paid for it with money left over after the costs of delivering such a service?

First, we need to have a standard way of doing things. This seems easy at first because medicine is scientific. But then again medicine is also an art. So, what we do, and not so much the how we do it, has to be more uniformed than we currently operate. The “what we do” should be guided mainly by the fact that we need to do everything we can to keep the patients healthy and/or get him well.

Second, we must let as many people as possible know that we can and will keep them healthy. To achieve that we must have the contact information of as many people as possible and contact them and let them know about our intentions and our abilities to keep them healthy. We call this marketing, internal and external. There are many, many different ways, but however it is done must be done in large and in uniformed ways.

Third, once people know about and are coming for some initial desire or problem, we must of course fix it. But for now we must also make sure that we enlighten/educate the person on all medical possibilities which could make his life more enjoyable in the future. That is our duty to the patients; never mind that we must do that in order to protect ourselves from lawsuits for negligence.

In order to achieve that, we must have a rigorous checksheet, like an airplane pilot has before taking off. After all, a pilot does this to make sure nothing is left out so that everything is done to prevent any accident which, in the case of flying an airplane, almost surely would mean the loss of life. Well, what do you think we doctors are dealing with? Toys? No, we deal in human lives and must at minimum adhere to as rigorous a checksheet in finding any existing illness or any potential illness, as any airline pilot would use to check for potential malfunctions.

Fourth, finding potential and existing illnesses, and telling the patient about it is, however, not enough. We now must insist, with great patient education that the patient follows through with our recommendations. This is easier said than done.

It takes immense caring for the patient, time and of course, money to educate the patients. It can probably easily be compared with the raising of children, or the taking care of our elders. Suggestions, recommendations, and orders are not necessarily followed at the first attempt. Oh no! But what does a caring mom do? She keeps at it. She uses any and all tools and knowledge available to her.

Let it be said that her most important tool is that of caring. Sure, you say, those are her children. Yes, you are right. And to the degree that we do not take the time and effort to explain the necessity of any and all treatments or tests which we deem to be useful, we are not caring about our patients to the degree that we should be.

We have not only taken an oath, but we will not ever feel fulfilled with our lives if we do not give our last bit of energy to get the patents the procedure they need. Despite the fact that we might not be able to prevent it from happening anyhow, we must give our very best medical treatment, and perhaps more importantly, we must care like the best mom or dad in the world would care. Otherwise the patient is doomed.

Fifth, after we have successfully managed to administer all necessary tests and treatments, we must, of course, have a close to perfect way of collecting payments. This has become more difficult over the years with insurance companies having codes, which constantly change, and which are designed for as slow as possible payment to the doctor. It is also made difficult in that the insurance companies have managed to create the belief in the patients that if they (the insurance company) do not cover it, it is not necessary.

Therefore, as a practice we also need to spend money to keep this administrative step in order, otherwise we will go broke delivering great patient care. Going broke would help no one — not you, your family, nor the patient, who then has no caring doctor to go to. Patients do not want you to go broke – trust me!

It is imperative that we do what is needed no matter the cost. But, if we spend the time and  money to perform all the needed steps of marketing, patient education, administrative work, and spend the time and money it takes to learn those things, then and only then will we be able to keep our patients healthy.

Remember: Being successful in a medical or dental practice is not just about being a good doctor. Invest time and money to learn about medical or dental practice management, staff management and new patient marketing and you will have a smooth-running prosperous practice.

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Tags: Dental Practice Management, Medical Practice Management, New Patient Marketing, New Patients, un-advertising

 

Category: Healthcare Marketing.