Back to School

Every year as August approaches, families prepare for a new school year – supplies are bought and the anticipation mounts. Yet, there is still a lot that has to be done before the school year begins, including visits to the doctor.

This is the perfect opportunity to sit down and evaluate your marketing plan. Do you have patients who may need a physical or who are due for vaccinations? Have you made a plan to reach out to them? If not, here are some easy ways to create a buzz about your practice during the back-to-school season.

Send reminder postcards to keep your practice top of mind when parents are calling to make an appointment.

If you are a pediatrician, send reminder postcards for physicals and immunizations. Dentist? Send a reminder card for teeth cleaning. Eye doctor? This is the perfect time for kids to have their vision tested.

Hang signs in your practice.

This will not only help to remind your staff to ask patients if they need to schedule a physical, but it will also serve as a reminder for your patients.

Look forward to the next year and schedule the next appointment today.

After a patient’s appointment for a back-to-school check-up, take time to schedule his appointment for next year. Don’t forget to send your patient home with an appointment card to keep as a reminder.  

Reward your young patients with giveaways.

Getting shots is never fun. Make the experience better with a sticker or toy. If it’s a pleasant experience for both child and parent, they will be back to see you next year.

Team up with local doctors and businesses to create a mini-workshop to address the issues of children’s health.

Talk about how to pack a healthy lunch for a child. Invite a chiropractor to talk about the importance of a proper backpack, as many backpacks are too heavy.

-Mary

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Helping Clients Cope with the Death of a Pet

The death of a beloved pet can be as traumatic as losing a family member. During this difficult time, your small gestures can do a lot to help ease your clients’ pain.

For clients deciding to euthanize their pet, offer a complimentary session to discuss sedatives, hospice care and death with the entire family. Consider making a clay print of the pet’s paw for clients to take home as a keepsake.

When an animal dies, designate a room for counseling or for the clients to just be alone. Before they leave, offer them a small gift, such as a pet angel pin, a black “Remember” wristband, or a stuffed animal for children. After a week or so, send a sympathy card, signed by each of your team members, perhaps with a bouquet of flowers.

It’s a good idea to have books about grieving on hand for clients to borrow or purchase. Some books to consider include Goodbye, Friend: Healing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has Ever Lost a Pet by Gary Kowalski (Stillpoint Publishing); Grieving the Death of a Pet by Betty J. Carmack (Augsburg Fortress); The Loss of a Pet by Wallace Sife (Wiley Publishing, Inc.); or When Your Pet Dies: A Guide to Mourning, Remembering, and Healing by Alan Wolfelt, PhD (Companion Press). For children, consider Dog Heaven by Cynthia Rylant (The Blue Sky Press) or When a Pet Dies by Fred Rogers (of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood) from his excellent First Experiences collection (Family Communications Inc.).

Some people grieve for up to two years after their pet dies, so consider having a remembrance ceremony once a year. You might also decorate your holiday tree with ornaments in memory of the pets in your practice who have died. Some practices hire a companion animal loss counselor and offer individual and group pet-loss support sessions for clients and the community.

Pet parents who are struggling with grief need understanding, support and friendship. The little things you do can go a long way towards helping them cope.

What are some of the ways that you help clients manage their grief when their pet dies?

-Jim

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Don’t Let the Economy Get You Down

Is the financial downturn affecting your practice? Does it seem like you’re seeing fewer patients? Though you can’t change the economy, there are things you can do to strengthen patient relationships and increase loyalty, referrals and revenue!

Make the most of your down time.

A lag in appointments can be a great opportunity to get a handle on your inventory so that you don’t end up buying things you already have. You might also want to call the patients you saw a few days ago to ask how they’re feeling and if they have any additional questions.

Cultivate your Internet presence.

These days, the first place patients go to for information is the Internet. If you “Google” your practice, what kind of reviews will you find? If you find a bad review, take action! Sometimes you can contact the person, resolve the complaint and get them to remove it. Or you can try asking current patients to post positive feedback on the same site, so that it presents a more balanced picture.

Reward referrals.

Movie tickets and gift certificates are good referral gifts, or you might want to try promotional giveaways, such as pens, calendars or stress balls, imprinted with your practice contact information. Just make sure you do something, because word-of-mouth is often your best advertising.

Offer value.

More than ever, people are looking for value. Simply sharing your knowledge greatly increases the value of a visit for patients. And if you take the time to explain how the things you recommend today will help prevent a more serious and expensive problem in the future, patients will see your services as a savings opportunity, rather than an expense.

Take your time.

Taking the time to listen to patients’ stories helps strengthen bonds and shows you care about them as people – that they’re not just another appointment on your calendar. At the end of the appointment, ask if there are any other health concerns or if they need any refills. Patients will appreciate your thoroughness, and you never know where the conversation might lead.

Reinforce the decision to come see you.

Sometimes a patient’s symptoms turn out to be a false alarm. If you simply say, “It was nothing,” they might not come in the next time they have a medical concern. Instead, commend them for erring on the safe side.

Keep a positive attitude.

Conveying confidence and a position of authority with your body language, tone of voice and choice of phrase will help keep the morale of your staff from getting low and increase patient compliance.

Remember that the economy always fluctuates, and it will eventually bounce back. In the mean time, you can make the most of the situation, so that when the economy does improve, your practice will be well-situated.

Did I miss anything? If there is something else that you do to keep your business strong during these difficult economic times, please share!

– Jim

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Pharmaceutical companies are showing initiative in ethics improvements

As of April 21, 2009, 48 pharmaceutical companies have agreed to abide by the PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals. For a list of participating companies, click here.

The PhRMA Code aims to improve ethical behavior between salespeople and healthcare professionals by eliminating gifts and focusing interactions on products, providing scientific and educational information, and supporting medical research and education. Effective Jan. 1, 2009, the revised code also requires that participating companies establish policies and procedures that ensure compliance. To view the revised code, click here.

-Jim

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Team Building Activities

Before coming to Medical Arts Press, I managed a team of seven people in a high-paced environment. We were face to face with customers ten hours a day, and were dependent on each other to keep the branch running smoothly. And the days my team got along – those were the best days. Not only were we in high spirits, working efficiently, but those were also our best customer service days.

Employee morale in the office directly affects your practice and patients. If your team is not getting along, as a manager you will spend more time putting out fires than focusing on running an efficient practice.

Team-building activities are a great way to boost employee morale. These activities not only promote communication and bonding within the team but also help the team identify strengths and weaknesses and improve the ability to problem solve.

The internet is a great resource to find team building activities for all team sizes. After some searching, here are a few of my favorite team-building activities I found.

Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces
Help teams think about collaboration, communication and strategy.

Commonalities and Uniquities
Promotes unity – helps people to realize that they have more in common than may have thought.

Trust Walk
Activity involving leadership and a lot of trust.

-Mary

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Coupons and Your Practice

Who isn’t looking to save a buck these days? We all are. And, if you haven’t integrated coupons into your marketing plan, now is the time to do it.  In this economy, patients are likely to skip the extra services – like teeth whitening or doggie daycare – in an effort to save money.   

Integrating coupons into your marketing plan is relatively easy.  Here are a few ideas for a coupon campaign. 

Referral Coupons

Goal: Grow your patient base and get existing patients to use your services more frequently.   

What to do:  Create business cards with a coupon on the back.  Give a patient two business cards after each visit (one regular business card and one referral business card with the coupon on the back). 

Encourage your patient to write their name on the referral business card and give it to a friend. 

If the friend redeems the coupon, reward your patient by sending them their own coupon in the mail. 

Website Coupons

Goal: Drive more traffic to your practice website. 

What to do:  Create a coupon your patients can print only from your website. 

Advertise this coupon with a local radio ad or simply by word of mouth within your practice.  Tell every patient to visit your website for exclusive offers.   

Newspaper Coupons

Goal: Promote a general awareness about your practice’s services. 

What to do:  Create a coupon to advertise in the newspaper.  For this, consider bundling your services together, i.e. Come in for a teeth cleaning and get 20% off teeth whitening.

-Mary

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