Implement a Formal Reactivation Strategy to Enhance Your Medical Practice’s Profitability

Is it costing you a small fortune to attract new patients? It’s time to make calling lapsed patients a standard procedure and reap the rewards.

Dr. Kim’s dental practice spent a small fortune on marketing efforts that were supposed to bring in a steady flow of patients. When she ran the numbers, however, she found she was paying a huge amount for each new patient.

Then she began working with my coaching team, and she started thinking strategically about ways to increase her patient volume without breaking the bank. What about the army of patients she’d seen over the years for various procedures who did not return on a regular basis for routine cleanings and exams?

After identifying that strategy, Dr. Kim developed an internal process for reactivating those patients. Once a month, a member of her staff pulled the records of patients who had not been in for nine months or more. Her business coach, in collaboration with her two clinics’ office managers, developed a simple script to bring back these lapsed patients for an exam and cleaning.

Simple Script

“Hi, Krista. This is Ron from Cottage Dental. Dr. Kim asked me to reach out to you. It’s been almost a year since your last exam, and she is concerned about your oral health. There was a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing the link between low-grade oral infection and risk of heart disease. Dr. Kim wants me to schedule you for your next appointment. Is this week or next week better for you?”

This simple script gave them a powerful way to inexpensively increase their patient volume, and it yielded dramatic results. A quarter of the people they contacted immediately booked an appointment for an exam.

Calls to Lapsed Patient Now a Standard Procedure

Next, making calls to lapsed patients became a standard procedure at Dr. Kim’s office. As a result, her practice has consistently improved its patient volume. This successful reactivation strategy allowed her to cut several of her other expensive marketing strategies that weren’t delivering results and improved her overall patient retention.

Not only did Dr. Kim increase her patient volume at her two clinics by 12 and 32 percent respectively, but her practice also had a proactive way to influence the consistency of patient volume–all this due to the number of outbound calls her staff made in any given week.

Is that a strategy that would fit your practice? Can you make it a standard procedure? If so, activate it today!

Ready for more strategies to scale your medical practice? Download our book Grow Your Medical Practice and Get Your Life Back