What ever happened to “Susan”? [Insert name of patient who only came to see you once or twice]
Every Naturopathic Doctor has those patients who come in for a visit or two then never came back, right?
Typically:
“Susan” had a health concern, called to set up an initial appointment, filled out your intake forms, got the reminder call and/or email & came in for an initial appointment.
You, (the ND) listened to her story, her issues, her concerns, did your intake procedure, possibly did some labs, built a good foundation for the relationship, explained the naturopathic approach to her, gave her some initial care plan, possibly prescribed and/or sold her some supplements and scheduled a follow up visit to review lab results in a few weeks.
You possibly sent her home with a New Patient Welcome Package, She got your follow up email thanking her for coming in and welcoming her to the clinic & how you are looking forward to helping her on this journey to a healthy lifestyle.
All pretty standard so far right?
2nd Appointment: Susan got the reminder call and/or email & came in for the follow up appointment to go over her lab results. Susan comes in, you ask how she’s feeling, how she is doing on the initial care plan and if she is taking her supplements. You share the results of the lab tests and develop a comprehensive, more detailed care plan with possible diet changes & recommendations, exercises, additional supplements and new healthy routines to adopt. You either book a follow up appointment or suggest one for about a (week/month) out. (All depending on the severity & type of the health issue obviously).
3rd (or 4th Or 5th ) Appointment: You send the reminder email and/or call. Susan either calls to cancel or doesn’t show up, or never books it.
Your front desk person/admin assistant/office manager calls and/or emails Susan to reschedule but is not successful.
You are left thinking;, “What ever happened to Susan, I thought she was going to be a great patient” but as usual, you are super busy with other patients and you move on to help the next patient and…
Susan drifts away!
So what happened? What went wrong? & more importantly what can you do to fix it?
One of two things happened:
Susan stayed on track with your care plan, it worked great. She felt well and didn’t see any value in another appointment. (AKA “Fix me” patient- That’s a subject for another day!)
or
Susan didn’t hear from you for weeks, she was left feeling alone on her journey and thought; “I thought that doctor cared but I haven’t heard from them. I know they are busy, but…”.
So she “fell off the wagon” and slipped back to her old habits and didn’t want to face you to have to tell you that, so she went somewhere else or simply stopped getting care.
What can you do about it? … Introduce Patient Accountability!
Funny thing about accountability … Having been a business coach for over 20 years I’ve learned that Accountability is one of those things everyone says they want until they actually get it!
Well I guess that’s not quite true … some people know they don’t want it from the start.
But I know, you are already so busy how could you possibly find the time to add another thing for you to do? … Easy solution; don’t do that!
If you try to do regular scheduled accountability calls with patients here’s what typically happens:
- ND: “How are you? Did you [follow your care plan]?”
- Patient: “No” or “Yes but…”
- ND: “Why not?”
- Patient: “Because I… [insert feeble excuse here].”
- ND: “Will you try to follow it next week?”
- Patient: “Yes.”
- ND: “Great”
And eventually each party dreads the call or the email, and before long everything falls apart!
So don’t do that! Instead automate your accountability and make it something they look forward to each week.
What if part of Susan’s care plan was a weekly “Checking in” email that she had to answer two quick positive questions?
- What was one (or more) healthy activity you are proud you did last week?
- What is one (or more) new healthy activity you want to accomplish this week?
It may seem very simple, and it is. But think about it, each week Susan would hear from you. She would have the opportunity to report to you how she is doing and the progress she is making … she would see that you care and she would show up to her appointments!
…and the process can be easily automated!
Make your accountability plan something your patients look forward to each week.
How would this improve your patient retention?
Let’s keep the conversation going in the comments below.
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