Patient Retention In Healthcare Organizations

Healthcare organizations (HCOs) face a number of difficulties within its organization each day, including patient acquisition and patient retention. It is commonly believed that getting individuals to their healthcare facility is the most challenging aspect that HCOs face. Of course, new patient acquisition could be a challenge without an efficient marketing strategy, but the challenge does not stop there. One of the biggest challenges for many practices today is maintaining a high patient retention rate. Pushing a patient from a one-time-visitor to becoming a frequent visitor of a specific healthcare organization involves much more effort than expected. Unfortunately, this would be an issue that Boardwalk Clinic would soon realize. Located
…show more content…

Hayes and her colleagues were always quick to consult consumers for their insights and opinions. For example, prior to Boardwalk Clinic’s grand opening, the physicians test marketed the operation by offering a group of 12 Chelsea residents free examinations in exchange for their insights and opinions regarding the clinic’s décor and accommodations, processes and procedures, care delivery, and customer service (Fortenberry 2011). They also initiated an ongoing patient satisfaction surveys and acted on the findings, ensuring ongoing attention to patient wants and needs. These efforts led the physicians to believe that patient retention would be
…show more content…

Hayes learned that the vast majority of the patients only used Boardwalk Clinic during the times when their current caregivers were unavailable and they planned on returning to their current medical providers during traditional business hours. Thus, patients that need services during nontraditional hours most likely chose Boardwalk Clinic as their second choice, only because their first choice was not available. Although Dr. Hayes and her colleagues had a better understanding of the retention issue, they were still at a loss as to what steps the clinic could take to attract those patients in the Chelsea marketplace who already had relationships with other healthcare providers to make Boardwalk their first choice. There are a couple steps Boardwalk Clinic could take to ensure an increased rate of patient retention. The first step would be to enhance the marketing strategy. It would be hard to retain patients that the clinic doesn’t have in the first place. It is best to to ensure that marketing is authentic and useful, more than directly promotional (McLaughlin 2014). The more patients an HCO can reach through effective marketing, the more people they have to serve. When a person searches online for a practice, it results in a phone call almost 70 percent of the time, so it is best to create an effective marketing strategy to reach these potential customers (McLaughlin