5 magic words that make your practice attractive to patients

"We'll take care of that" is a phrase that patients like to hear. Think about what makes certain companies stand out. It is not necessarily the cheapest price or even the product they are selling. The differentiator is the customer experience. The same applies to healthcare, and what stands out and makes most practices successful is the patient experience. For this article, I want to focus on convenience.

Examples of businesses that place an importance on customer convenience include:

• With two clicks, you can buy a product from Amazon and have the package delivered to your doorstep within two days.
• Online grocery delivery services can shop for your food and deliver it to your home. Now you don't have to spend time driving to and from the store, pushing a cart through the store searching for your groceries, or waiting to check out.
• Auto-renewal subscription charges you automatically, so you don't have to remember to re-subscribe. (Spoiler alert: this automatic renewal may be a pain point with charges to subscriptions that you pay for when you no longer use the subscription.)

These five words capture the essence of creating a convenient patient experience. When practices eliminate friction points and other time-consuming tasks, making it easier for patients, they send a message to their patients that they will make every effort to take care of them.

So, how can healthcare provide the "We'll take care of that for you" experience to patients?

Start by identifying the patients' friction points. Leading the list of friction points includes difficulty gaining access to the practice and obtaining prior authorization for appointments, medications, tests, and procedures.

Next, train your staff to identify patients' problems proactively before they complain. You need to examine the reasons for these problems and find ways to eliminate them. An example is the sticker shock when a patient receives a bill for your services. It is better to explain the bill before the patient gets it, or to tell the patient the cost before performing a test or procedure.

Try becoming your patient. Look at your care process as if you were the patient. Mystery-shop your practice and experience what your patients experience. If you call the practice, use the same number patients use to contact the office. Hear first-hand how the receptionist creates that critical first impression when calling the office. Listen to see whether they use the patient's name during the call and whether they remind them to complete their paperwork, including the health questionnaire and demographic information before their appointment.

Role-playing during a staff meeting is another technique for enhancing morale within the practice. For example, one staff member can assume the role of an angry patient calling to complain about a bill, while another staff member attempts to calm the patient and resolve their issue. The rest of the staff can critique the dialogue.

Another example of experiencing what the patient feels is a senior citizen simulation designed for younger staff members to understand the limitations and challenges that older patients face when navigating a medical practice. The senior citizen simulation is accomplished in the following fashion:

A middle-aged team member is converted to a senior citizen by 1) making her hard of hearing by placing a cotton ball in each ear, 2) impairing her vision by giving her glasses that distort the reading material, and 3) making her arthritic by having her wear gloves and immobilizing one leg with a splint. Before the staff meeting, she is asked to go to the bank in the building, make a transaction, enter the office, sign in at the reception desk, take a seat, and review some of our patient education materials.

The team member then returns to the reality of a middle-aged woman. We started the staff meeting, and she explained that she had trouble reading materials at the bank and in our reception area. She also had difficulty getting into and out of the chairs in the reception area. She also had problems using the doorknobs to open doors in the restroom and the exam room. Finally, she had trouble hearing the receptionist in the office and the bank teller.

What did we learn? We learned that the font size, 12-point, on our print material in the reception area was too small. We knew that most of the chairs in our reception area and the exam rooms were not accessible to seniors. We learned that one of the staff members may need help with seniors ' paperwork due to difficulty with fine motor skills, such as writing. We also added rubber door handle grips to assist seniors in opening doors. (Figure 2) Most of all, we increased the sensitivity of the entire staff to the unique concerns of older patients and how we might provide better care for them.

Share your commitment to convenience with "We'll Take Care of That." If your practice is going to make it easy for your patients, let them know. Share that your approach to convenience sets your practice apart from others. If you have a policy of returning phone calls and emails within twenty-four hours, mention that on your website, your practice brochure, and newsletters. However, to truly be different, you must deliver on your promise.

Every time you remove a pain point or eliminate a step in the workflow, you are telegraphing to your patient that you value their time and that their time it is just as important as yours.

Bottom Line: Those five words, whether explicitly stated or implied through your actions, you are saying, "We'll take care of that".

Neil Baum, MD, a Professor of Clinical Urology at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. Dr. Baum is the author of several books, including the best-selling book, Marketing Your Medical Practice-Ethically, Effectively, and Economically, which has sold over 225,000 copies and has been translated into Spanish.